SHOUT Magazine: Bay Area Hip-Hop

Kat Ouano///The Keys to Crown City

2007-06-14T09:07:00.000-07:00

Kat Ouano
Pic by Matt Reamer. Fashion by Nicacelly.

-By Jeremy Tanner

Before I met Kat Ouano I would never have guessed that there were young boys and girls in Kansas playing classical piano competitively. Not for the love, not for their parents, but for the judges. Kat knows all about it because she was one of those youngsters. Recently I went to the Elbo Room in the Mission and watched Kat burn up the keys for the Crown City Rockers.
The Elbo Room was packed like a rush hour Muni, sweat droplets were condensing on the ceiling, people bobbed and nodded frenetically to the beat—and then Kat played her solo. With the rest of Crown City behind the curtains, the crowd’s energy fell upon Kat like a camera lens coming into focus. She wound hip-hop around classical music like audio braids. This is how Kat orchestrates when she plays—she started by giving judges goose bumps in Kansas, but now she spends her time in the Bay Area teaching people how to dance at hip-hop shows.

What time does your best work happen?
At night, when there’s no real distractions and you can be awake without bothering anybody and without being bothered. I’m a night owl, that’s why I can’t stick to any real job because then your life becomes centered around this fixed schedule. You can’t go outside of that boundary because then the next day you won’t be able to function.
If you make music while you’re exhausted your music will be exhausted, monotonous. You get the same tone in everything and you’re thinking why is it so dull? Maybe because you’re starting it at 4 o’clock in the morning(laughs)! They’ve always said a true musician has a day job, you’ve seen those bumper stickers, but it’s like, you know, it’s got to be a balance of being a true artist and knowing where you’re going if you want to live well.

I guess it’s the romantic ideal.
Yeah, I love the romantic ideals. It makes life worth living instead of just working for somebody else … If I go a couple of days without making any kind of music, not playing, not making a beat or not hanging out with the guys and just talking about shit, I’ll just turn into a weird-ass weirdo that’s mean and grumpy and doesn’t want to make a decision, and I have to ask myself what’s going on? Then we’ll get together and have a rehearsal and I’ll think, “oh yeah, this is what I need to be doing all the time!” But then there’s those devils in there, like, “Here, we’ll pimp you, take a job and we’ll give you all this money!”

Just so that people know a bit more about the history of Crown City Rockers, how did you guys originally find each other?
We started out as Mission. We actually all met in Boston because me, Max (Max MacVeety) and Headnodic (Ethan), all met at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Headnod knew Moe Pope from the streets and then me, Headnod and Moe moved in together. Moe knew Raashan (Raashan Ahmad) who had lived out in Boston before and was convincing Raashan to move back out to Boston from Pasadena. Raashan knew Woodstock from Pasadena and Raashan convinced Woodstock to move out to Boston, and that’s where we formed. That’s also where the name Mission came from because we were all living in Mission Hill in Boston. And then we all moved out to California for a while and that’s when we released our first album, Mission One. Then the UK band Mission asked us to change our name.

How did you come around to that name?
Raashan and Woodstock are from Pasadena and Pasadena is the “crown city”, I guess it’s like the crown of the valley, and so that’s where Crown City came from. Rockers just sounded cool, it sounds like an old break-dancing crew, or like an old roller derby team (laughs).

So now that you’ve been out here for a while, how would you compare the two different hip-hop scenes?
Wow, they’re totally different, like in Boston everything is a hustle, you’re constantly moving and everything is constantly moving around you. It’s a different atmosphere. I don’t want to say grimy, but it’s more gritty and has a little bit of a rougher edge, whereas out here it’s all smoothed-out and more chill. You can kind of get lost in letting things happen, it’s more relaxing, but it still has that funk, that chill, party feel. But actually I haven’t been back to Boston in so long. It’s this fantastic idea in my head of how it used to be. That goes along with the spirit of being young, I want to go back now and get that hustle back (laughs)!

I’m curious to know how the process was of adapting your classical training to hip-hop music?
I guess there’s a direct correlation with performing in general. When I was playing classical music competitively in Kansas it was performing for the judge. It was to keep the judge totally focused and interested. It’s the same thing with a show, you have to keep the audience totally with you no matter where you’re at. If you’re really excited then they should be excited as well, if you’re really intense then they’re hanging on every note.
Performing in general is … theatrical. In classical music you can get a heart beating really fast depending on what you’re playing and how intense it is. With a hip-hop song it’s the same thing, you know? That song “It’s The” that I play, that’s a classical piece morphing into a hip-hop song. It’s the perfect marriage of those two. I’d be playing a Beethoven piece or something like that and just imagine a beat behind it because the tempo is there; it’s like a zone that you’re in.

So do you have a good sense of what the audience is feeling most of the time?
Totally, but it changes with every audience. Depending on the audience, it’s like a chameleon effect, you’re trying to feel what everyone is feeling so that you’re all in that same little bubble. Say one night your playing a show at a little bar, there’s maybe like five people there drinking beer or whatever. There’s not a huge stage, it’s just our amplifiers and a tiny PA, so we’ll just tone it down a little, make it a little more jazzy, free it up. We don’t have a real set list, we’ll experiment with them but it will be relaxed. Then the next night it’s a huge stage, a huge crowd, lights and everything. With more people you have to exaggerate your energy and really bang it out so that everyone can get a taste.

How do you decide where to place your notes in the songs?
It depends on the song. The process is that there is no process (laughs). We’ve tried everything—including trying to have a process—but that just gets thrown out the window. It can range from us just jamming, having a good session while Raashan is writing and bam, there’s the song. Or we’re jamming and somebody presses “record” during the session and we find one bit that works and we go off of that. Maybe we’ll move it around but that piece is what we build off. Or someone comes up with a beat that just sounds totally cool, like Woodstock made a beat one time and said, “Could you guys try to replay this and make it sound better?” There’s five people in the band so we have five filters for the music, and if one person says, nah, that’s not bumpin’; it needs something else, then it needs something else! And all of us are nit-picky as hell! That’s the quality control (laughs)!

Where do you see hip-hop going in the next few years?
Well, I see a lot of hip-hop bands coming up these days which I think is great because so many of the kids out there see hip hop as just being about a deejay and an emcee, which is definitely what it is, but they need to be exposed to more live musicians to really experience how music is created on an instrument rather than just samples.

So is that where you would steer hip-hop?
Hell yeah! I’m a musician! I would also make hip-hop shows more entertaining, If you’re going to go to a hip-hop show, it should give you something that you’ve never seen or felt before. Sometimes they’re just so boring and everybody there is angry (laughs). It’s like okay, maybe that’s the show in itself, maybe you just go to be all tough and everything, but I know you feel different (laughs)! Come on, show it!

Malibu///The Persistence of Memory

2006-11-17T19:18:00.000-08:00

Story by Folklore
Flix by Scott Anderson

God bless these memories, guide and protect our child with your graceful presence and with every day he is healthy and strong. Give us the knowledge to bring him above the callous we’ve suffered ...

So begins an inscription in Perry “Malibu” Greggs’ Winnie the Pooh photo album. Penned by Tiara Downey, the mother of Malibu’s newborn son, 7lb-9oz-19” Perry Lee Greggs Jr. The words are a blessing for the new life depicted in sonograms–and a prelude to Malibu’s story.

Malibu channels his demons on a Sunday afternoon for an exercise in freestyle; his eyes telegraph each turn of phrase. His boombox is on hand—part of his press kit along with the photo album and several copies of his CD. A fist and a lighter provide a kick and a snare on the window of an abandoned storefront. A cipher ensues, punctuated with priceless anecdotes, a tell-tale inflection, and cigarette fumes.

He returns to the prosaic, “I used to be a drug dealer, and that’s the key word, used to. Until I finally realized that I was very callous, greedy, inconsiderate, and just everything that Satan offered Jesus on the top of the mountain. ‘I’ll give you all the kingdoms of the Earth if you just go ahead and submit to me.’

“I told my son in a conversation the last time I seen him,” Malibu continues. “‘Steven, your daddy is pretty good. I’m kinda like a padded room, medication, door locks, white-jacket dudes comin’ in and sayin’, ‘Stop talking!’ I said, ‘I’ma be famous one day. I said I’ma be on the radio.’”

His eldest son Steven died shortly thereafter in an auto accident at the age of 20. “We buried my son five days after I get out of the system. Five fuckin days.”

“I've destroyed families, and I regret that,” says Malibu, staring into the short horizon of the Tenderloin streets. “I done destroyed relationships of love, and I regret that… I got regrets of going to prison. I got regrets of not being around my son who passed.” Regret can both quell and fuel motivation, but Malibu refuses to half-step.

Then, turning with a sharp focus in his eyes, “I have no sponsors, no promoters,” says Malibu. “I don’t have no manager, I don’t have no agent. I don’t have none of that shit. I’ve been doing this since my son’s demise.”

“Homeless” is a subjective word. Malibu is actually just houseless. He would have you believe that his home is seven square miles of concrete–and you’d be inclined to believe him. Raised in 1960s Haight / Ashbury, he has remained in San Francisco through at least three major exercises in futility: Vietnam, Reaganomics, and the O.J. trial.

He has family, though: J-Rush, Future Primitive, Frisco Studios, Robotspeak, Milk, The Noc Noc Bar, The Independent, “a tall cat named Ron,” and “another brother named Doug Wiley”–those who’ve endorsed his music. The hiccups in Malibu’s scathing tone lend to his sincerity. A couple cold cans of Sparks lend enthusiasm, as he intermittently opens up the conversation to everyone within a one-block radius—in essence, his living room parlor.

“All these people were recognizing something in me that I failed to recognize,” says Malibu. “Cause I was just doin’ it because this is what I do. It’s my passion, it’s my hobby. You see people down at the Marina with kites and they got eight kites, and you go, ‘This is the stupidest motherfucker in the world,’ Right? You see a motherfucker riding a skateboard with no brakes. You understand me? I don’t have your talent, but one thing I do know is your talent and your blessing is yours, and if we don’t recognize that, we fall very short of the potential success which any of us can reach.”

He has a habit of wandering through analogies to find the point, but his stream of consciousness is unmistakably hip-hop. “It’s like my son is not here, but I talk to youngsters based on my respect for the life that they live because I’ve heard so many youngsters say that they don’t care if they live past twenty-one or twenty-two, or they wanna die when they’re nineteen,” says Malibu. “Just missing my son the way I do, I’ma ask Him why is my son gone when someone else is so nonchalant about what they got to give this world, they wanna live on the streets. My son was gravitating to a level of life, and he died by accident. That’s the part that crushes me the most because I love all and any. I ain’t never set-tripped in my life. I ain’t never gang-banged, I ain’t never wore red or blue, I don’t play that… My son was never involved in anything negative under any context of life, and he gone. So, I’m motivated primarily by pushing it because I know he rollin’.”

Another cipher starts up–this time with the boombox, as Malibu raps along to his song “When One of Yours Dies”:
I’m hearin’ souls that once was bold as they walk these streets
They have been laid to rest once on this concrete.

Success is measured in persistent strides. Malibu has traversed the fire with the faith that he will see his success. And sometimes success is the persistence of memory.

“[Stephen] said, ‘Dad, you’re too old. He said, ‘Dad, you’re not a rapper.’ And this is what I told my son, I said ‘I’m not a rapper, I’m a poet.’ For fifteen years I had went through a whole lot of negative conjectures, just not knowing what I could become [as] opposed to what I should be. And I suffered a lot for it with his mom, and with my times of absence, but I tell you this, I told him I would be famous. I didn’t say famous in respect to [celebrity], but famous from a spiritual standpoint, and he was like, ‘I love you, Dad.’”

Malibu carries his children with him wherever he goes, the worn jacket of his photo album housing the sonograms of little Perry–with thirty blank pages. There are more memories to be made.

“…Let his soul carry his innocence many years into life and I pray that he will have me and Perry in his life unconditionally till his time to rest, never to suffer the neglect or pain of the absence of He who created soul. Amen.”

Lyrics Born: Fighting Without Martyrs

2006-03-16T23:46:00.000-08:00

Story by Mike Conway
Flix by Bayeté Ross-Smith

Lyrics Born is a straight-up dude. When conversating with this acclaimed emcee, what you see in him, you get from him—like a gallon of pure H2O; he carries very few abstractions. Forget for a minute that he’s of the Asian diaspora, which is something the media normally fails to do. Media portrayals of Asians run a thin gamut (more on that later). Regardless, Lyrics is one of the most legit cats I’ve met among all “diaspores.”

Like leaches, characterizations flock toward the slightest blood-drop from the Far East. I even caught myself expounding a geography lesson to Tom Shimura , a.k.a. Lyrics Born, about how Asia is everything east of Turkey, until LB interrupted with, “and damn near all of Daly City.” Like I said, he’s real like that.

Reality is lost many times on an entertainer’s appeal. It slowly separates performers from the general population. We see them first as friends, then as part fetish and part obsession, which are all very distracting reactions to our tastes. With his loungey baritone, LB defuses any misconceptions about his appeal, focusing rather on what is at hand—sight, sound, scents, as well as tastes:

When I look out from the stage onto the audience, I definitely see like a really broad range of people. I see a lot of women, which is not typical of most hip-hop shows [chuckles], a lot of women of color; I see a lot of people of color across the board. You know the more records that sell and the more popular the music gets, I just see that if the area has that kind of diversity, those people are definitely checking us out.

I’ve spoken to Lyrics a couple of times, and I don’t recall his voice ever being hoarse. For such a loquacious rapper, this dude’s got an unfailing vocal capability. Lyrics really started to roll when he and label-mate Lateef dropped their debut LP Latyrx in 1996. Their hit “Say That” is one of the sharpest joints of the ‘90s. I was seriously disillusioned with hip-hop back then, as it seemed the genre traded in its cajones and uhurus for a grip of glossy crap. Latyrx brought me right back with a simple punchline by Lyrics Born: “Suckers steer clear of me like feminists do car shows.”

LB now rocks crowds with wife Joyo Velarde and a live band. He’s rapped with the mac-daddies of all barbershop sextets, Jurassic 5, with Souls of Mischief, KRS ONE and E40. No matter what the configuration, his style always comes through, cordial and fresh. Even so, just like with white emcees, people try to tie him strictly to his ethnicity, and at times he’s tagged as “the Asian rapper.” It’s not so much racist as it is a rarity.

During our interview, he and I inevitably had to talk about the “race card.” To most of the mass media, Asian presence is as scarce as a nice set of gams in Mecca during Ramadan. “I mean I got satellite,” Lyrics adds, “and I can watch that shit for 24 hours, and I bet you I see two or three Asians. And we’re talking 500 channels now man... But we’re here; we’ve been here for a long time.”

Many Pacific-Rim literati concur with Lyrics Born. In her book I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight, spoken word performer Margaret Cho says when you actually do see Asians, they’re this small margin of stereotypes: fiery Jet Li ass-kickers, the math wizes, workaholic liquor store heads (a.k.a. crime victims), and lone field reporters narrating over drab, canned footage. Plotlines restrict them to exotic intrigues, like smuggling organs and fading the feds with help from ancient curses. This may be a far different order than sambos, yes. But like any stereotype, these roles place Asian characters just as far from fucking REALITY.

“The industry has a long way to go,” says Lyrics. “We’re gonna have to start our own shit and blow-up independently because no artist-&-repertoire entity is gonna say, ‘we need to go out there and find ourselves some Asian rappers.’”

LB’s already way ahead of them. Formerly Asia Born, he made the switch to “Lyrics” near the same point as his label Quannum changed-over from “Solesides.” LB made the personal transition from a focus on where he was from to an emphasis on where he’s at right now. And though he seems to have lost a little weight, LB is snow-balling a couple sizes above L, fame-wise. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving, persevering cat.

Though his appeal is rife with anomalies, it attests both to the flexibility of his sound and the transcendent honesty of his words. But don’t trip on the appeal. Buy the fucking shit and rock it like it’s hot.

RJD2 and Aceyalone at the Independent

2006-03-10T13:46:00.000-08:00

Review by Thomas Hynes

Live hip-hop can be a dicey proposition. Admit it: too often, deejays and emcees simply regurgitate their albums to the crowd, bringing nothing new to the crowd's experience. This was not the case a couple weeks back, as RJD2, Aceyalone and the Busdriver rocked a sold out crowd at the Independent.

The night began with the Busdriver, rhyming with Christmas lights lit across his shirt. The show then segued into RJD2's solo set. RJ admitted he was gonna try something new, and instead of playing a live video feed of him spinning over his four decks (no headphones mind you), he ran some other footage; a BBC maritime documentary. The crowd was stunnned to hear the hits from Deadringer and Since We Last Spoke plated to the footage of dolphins crashing the surf. RJ ended his set by pulling out his acoustic axe and playing "Making Days Longer." After a quick break, Aceyalone joined him on stage and set it off, even burning an L with audience members in the process.

The house lights came on at about 1:15, and in what was probably the coolest moment of the night, Rj shook hands with anyone who came to the stage to meet him. It's not clear whether he does this every night or if the Bay Area crowd just moved him to be so friendly. Regardless, this was a dope show with tons of talent.

Get out there for yourselves and check out some live music, and if you get a chance peep the collaboration of Ace and RJ, Magnificent City, available now from Project Blowed. Like their record says, 'love life, and let it love you back.' With shows like this, how hard could that be?

Jennifer Johns: Incubation in Fire

2006-03-02T14:23:00.000-08:00

Interview by Bella Bakrania
Flick by Matt Reamer

Jennifer Johns is a powerful performer. In front of hundreds of people at local stage shows in Berkeley and Oakland, I’ve seen her captivate the crowd and bare her soul, undeterred and in pure neo-soul fashion. Her music is off the hook too, with fierce punches of funk, dub reggae, social commentary and raw emotion, mixed with hip-hop beats, deejay tricks, and natural percussion.

SHOUT had the opportunity to chat with her about where she developed such a stage presence, and how she learned to tune her voice to that distinctive soul-pitch.

SHOUT: Where were you raised and where have you traveled in the world?
Jennifer:I’m from East Oakland, born and raised. I grew up singing with the Oakland Youth Chorus and I took dance classes at Alice Arts Center. I went to LA when I was 19. I performed at an ongoing event called Pure Love with Pure Love Entertainment. As a kid I sounded like everybody else, but I developed my sound and got involved with the label Goodvibe Recordings. I met Mystic and Spontaneous and got into more hip-hop. That’s where I discovered my voice.

Why did you leave the Bay to go to LA?
Everybody should go away from home for just a little bit to figure it out. Sometimes I’m a little punk about the cold. LA was easy and close.

What sort of music did you learn during your formative years as a singer?
Because of the Oakland Youth Chorus, I learned music in a lot of different languages - Yoruba, Cantonese, French, Portuguese, Spanish, whatever. We performed everywhere, at shows with singers like Peabo Bryson, Roberta Flack and Melissa Manchester. We performed everywhere like the Paramount here in Oakland and at the Grace Cathedral in SF.

Tell me more about how you developed your live performance skills.
There is so much pirating going on in music that musicians can’t survive unless you can put on a show. It comes down to what kind of showman and entertainer you are. Pure Love was a place where a lot of artists could woodshed, you know, just shedding yourself of everything. People like Malcolm Jamal Warner, Medusa, and Martin Luther would come through and do their thing. There were never more than 100 people there. I peeped some game from Medusa. I got to sing backup for her—that bitch is bad! When I did the tour with Blackalicious in Europe, we opened for Mary J. Blige and Chaka Khan. Being under Gift of Gab’s wings was good.

Is your schedule like routine or all over the place?
Well, I was supposed to move to NY, but I feel like there’s a lot going on in the world now, in the streets, with the people. I’m really feeling folks here, and the musical renaissance and revolution that’s happening in the Town right now. We’ve got Hieroglyphics, Federation, the Team, Goapele, Femi, Ise Lyfe, so many different kinds of music coming out of here, so diverse, I can’t leave right now. I’ve been touring a bit—I just got back from Hawaii and Alaska.

Tell us about creating your last album heavyelectromagneticsoularpoeticjunglehop, on Nayo Movement Music.
It was awful, but it was the best too. I was shedding my experiences. Joshua Evans was the engineer. It was coproduced by Spontaneous. Spontaneous is from Chicago but now a part of LA’s underground hip-hop scene. He released the single Waterproof in ‘98 [Goodvibe Recordings], and Next School MCs (1999) and Reprezen’n, (2000) as well as a full-length Spur of the Moment Musik. I went to Seattle in the fall of 2003 with Spontaneous and we did that album in 10 days. We went underground. I got hella sick. I lost hella weight. I had pneumonia.

You basically blew up with your last album. How does it feel?
I had fans in LA already. But the music was spread by word of mouth. And there’s continual growth. We sold about 300,000 copies of the first EP without a record label! There’s some internet promotion, too.

What are you currently working on?
I am producing as well as singing. I’m working with other people on the new album. It’s expected to be done in spring 2006. I’m recording it here in Oakland (in Allen Dones house studio) and Hawaii. In the studio we’re above Broadway Terrace, overlooking the Bay, it’s a beautiful place.

Where can we find your music? It is on a web site and in major stores?
You can find it in Tower and Amoeba. Since it was released I’ve been getting a lotta love, nothing but support. I’ve been getting some international support too.

Boots Riley: Long Time We No...

2006-02-18T21:55:00.000-08:00

Interview By Jesse Ducker
Flix by Abi Klein

Revolution isn’t trendy for The Coup; it’s been in their DNA from day one. From the first full-length album, Kill My Landlord, in 1993, the group has been about chronicling the trials of everyday people struggling for revolution.

Subsequent releases, Genocide and Juice, Steal This Album, and Party Music shared the same themes. Records by The Coup reflect a connection with the everyday challenges that economically disadvantaged people go through. Can you name one other group that has recorded two different odes to the repo man?

Members Boots and DJ Pam the Funkstress have actively worked for social change over many years. Boots has been a member of three different progressive organizations, including the Progressive Labor Party where he “cut his teeth” from age 15 to 19. At this tender young age, he was getting flown out to places like Detroit, Chicago, and New York to speak at meetings to like-minded youths and adults. “It gave me the sense of being able to do things,” Boots said. “I was meeting real people doing real things.”

Though he now works with many other organizations, Boots says he isn’t a full-fledged member of any of them. At this point, he seems content with being a “free agent” for the cause. Now he’s preparing to drop Choose a Bigger Weapon, which will be released in early 2006.

It’s been four years since the world has heard a new album by The Coup. In some ways Boots knows he’s going to be starting with a clean slate. This is part of the reason The Coup signed to Epitath Records, known at one time as a rock label, but now the home to an increasing amount of progressive hip-hop artists. They’re also known to help artists go to the next level.
Armed with a new album and ready to educate those who need to learn, The Coup is a reader for a new musical and intellectual assault, and SHOUT had a chance to feel the fury...

SHOUT: What’s the science behind the title of the album, Choose a Bigger Weapon?
Boots: I got the album title from the poet Jessica Care Moore. Me and my girl were hanging out with her at a club. My girl had finished her fifth martini, and she was going back to the bar to get another. And Moore said to her, ‘Girl, it’s time to pick a bigger weapon.’ But for the album, it’s like we’re all involved in the struggle against the system. We’re all involved in the individual and collective struggle to survive. And now it’s time to up the ante.

It seems like organizations that work to help others aren’t as effective these days. What do you think the problem is?
The center of this struggle is around the day-to-day thing. Working on a day-to-day basis to make ends meet. The organizations out there need to get involved with these issues. The actual goals are nebulous. A lot of people that are involved don’t have the same day-to-day problems as a lot of the people who need the most help. Everyone can’t fly to Seattle to protest. Instead, they could be forming an organization to get everyone to join a union. Unions these days need a lot of help. Now it’s like management is working with the unions to make sure that people don’t ask for too much. Something militant could bring real change. They just need to get back to day-to-day issues. A collective struggle is effective.
The movement is scattered around. It isn’t focused. The struggle for wages and housing is ignored. In the 1920s, the Communist Party of the USA had one million members. The revolution was about helping people getting what they need, like jobs and housing. These groups have to work with the people. This takes a high level of organization.

So why do think the movement went off track?
It really started back in the 1960s with the student movement. The style of organization back then was based around students and how to get them hyped. The people that were struggling to survive got left out. After a while, the people who remained in the movement didn’t really know how to organize others. The training was exciting, but wasn’t based on real practical shit. It really got people involved to fight against the system, but the movement got into a lot of showboating.
Another problem is the growing involvement with all of these foundations and the grants that they give out. By giving out grants for only certain types of programs, they’re dictating what areas receive help. So these large foundations really set the agenda of what a lot of organizations try to tackle. For example, there are all these programs for violence prevention, which is the result of the Ford Foundation. This is what the Ford Foundation wants these organizations to use their resources working on, even though the statistics about violence prevention don’t hold up and show that this isn’t really such a huge area that needs help.

What types of issues do you tackle on Choose a Bigger Weapon?
The subject matter runs the gamut in terms of politics. We talk about sexual politics, politics on a personal level, all types of politics.

How would you say this album is different from the other four that you’ve recorded?
Lyrically, it’s very tight. The music is a lot more advanced than the stuff I’ve done before. I also used a different approach in putting the album together. Usually the album is made up of the first 10 or 12 beats that I record and like. For Choose a Bigger Weapon, I chose from 100 to 150 beats I liked.

How did you hook up with Kweli and Black Thought?
I met Kweli in 1999, and I’ve been doing shows with The Roots for a long time. The first one we did together was probably back in 1995. But I really got to know them when we did the “Black Artist Tour” in South Africa with the Roots, Kweli, dead prez, and Jeru the Damaja.

Are you working with any other artists on other projects?
Well, I did a beat for Kweli for his new album. And I’m doing an album with Silk-E, who’s touring with us and appears on Weapon. She has a solo song on our album called “Let’s Have This Baby Before George W. Bush Goes Crazy.”

Wasn’t there some talk that you were producing an album with Stic.Man from dead prez?
We were recording that album a while ago. Stic.Man wanted to record a solo album, and he really liked the sound of Party Music. He was out here for about a month, so I helped produce the album and helped him get that sound. We used the same musicians that were on Party; we recorded it in the same studio. He recorded a bunch of songs, and there were a bunch of labels interested in picking it up, but he decided to not put it out and start from scratch.

So now that hip-hop is a multi-billion dollar business for the music industry, where do you see things going?
What the major labels are doing is like cultural imperialism, just like anything under the capitalist system. Music is used as a tool to make these labels their money. And we’re caught in the system. Now, we’re not trying to create an alternative system, we’re trying to do something revolutionary.

SHOUT Best of 2005: Azeem

2006-02-06T11:43:00.000-08:00

by Mike Conway
flix by Matthew Reamer

“Writing is what I do no matter what, whether I was broke or not. I would always find a way to express myself,” says Ismail Azeem. Always in search of that “way,” Azeem’s been on a haj, seeking out different poetic locales through the blocks of Oakland and beyond.

Since his 1999 debut EP, Garage Opera, Azeem’s traveled through a lot of studios and stages. Then in ‘01 he completed his second outing, Craft Classic. This time an LP, Classic carried the work of seven capable, all-Bay producers. An emcee can get lost in the many different cuts of such a production; but Classic shows Azeem taking charge, his presence established in every beat. With tracks like “Duragz” (w/ DJ Spin) and “Rubber Glue” (DJ Zeph) on one end and “God’s Rolex” (Fanatik) on the other, Craft Classic is both hilarious and profound.

After Classic, Azeem was officially a talent to reckon with and the haj was on. He rarely changes his pitch up to fit a rhyme in; rather, he packs his verse into steady, tidy meters. But Azeem says talent alone gets you nowhere. “I can go around the corner right now and grab you ten guys that can all flow and freestyle for an hour. But when it comes time to go to school, work, raise a kid, then focus on your music for two/three hours a night, that’s where they fall short.”

Having a talent is one thing, but getting approached by labels for it is better. When Gregory Howe of Wide Hive Records needed the right emcee for his Variable Unit--a loose group of jazz fusion instrumentalists, such as Matt Mongomery, and Kat Ouano and Max MacVeety of the Crown City Rockers--he tapped Azeem and the project culminated in the ingenious LP Mayhem Mystics. On this album, Azeem’s lyricism covers a wider range in both style and substance than on previous efforts.

Even as he was working on the Variable Unit project, Azeem kept on as a solo artist. Within months of the Mayhem Mystics release, Azeem also put out Show Business through Bomb Hip-Hop. Show Business was on the same tip as Garage Opera and Craft Classic, this time with 15 producers and 18 tracks.

For Azeem, taking on multiple collaborations is its own reward. “I’m not trying to pat myself on the back, but I don’t know too many emcees that can write a whole album with live jazz musicians and have it sound one way, and then go and have a hip-hop record and have that sound just as authentic.”

And now as we close in on 2006, Azeem’s lyrical haj gets deeper. He’s set to release many more projects, all equally unique. First up will be an LP with DJ Zeph, as Alpha Zeta. After that, he’ll release a grime album with the Switchcraft crew. He’s also collaborating with Reggie Graham, director of the Broadway production “Bring in da Noise, Bring in da Funk” for a musical adaptation of Azeem’s spoken word performance “Rude Boy,” which will run at the Marsh Theater in SF. Throw in some other collaborations with Om Records' artists Colossus and a mixtape with DJ Child, you get a good idea about how dedicated this emcee is to his art.

Armed with his craft, Azeem has traveled far and wide. But, he says he couldn’t have moved an inch without striking up a certain chemistry with each of his collaborators. “Music is chemistry,” he says. “You might have good beats, I might have good lyrics, but if our ethers don’t mix properly, it’s gonna come out in the music.”

Life, it is said, is a journey for all of us. Yet if we can’t vibe and meander with others on the way, it’s mostly an aimless wandering that gets us nowhere. For Azeem, it’s a haj with many destinations, each one different from the last and every one slightly closer to Mecca.

Turntable at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival

2006-01-31T13:39:00.000-08:00

The 8th Annual San Francisco Independent Film Festival kicks off next week. And among the bevy of dope, low-budget films being featured here in town is Turntable. Written and directed by Robert Patton-Spruill, Turntable is the story of three brothers in Boston, and the blurry line that often separates crime and hip hop.

These days Hollywood seems to only delve into hip hop culture in order to show stuffy white folks 'getting their groove back.' Turntable is not this type of movie nor is it another self-serving bio-pic about a living rapper who has harrowed through a whole three albums of a 'career.' But don't get it twisted! Turntable is a dope movie, with plenty of twists, turns and sexy curves. So get out there and support your local film festival, Bay Area!

Turntable
USA 2006
88 minutes
www.turntablethemovie.com
Film Description

-Women's Building
2/10 7p

-Roxie Cinema
2/12 2:15p

For more information on the San Francisco Independent Film Festival, go to www.sfindie.com

SHOUT Best of 2005: Steriods in Hip-Hop

2006-01-26T10:42:00.000-08:00

SHOUT Best of 2005: Afrika Bambaataa

2006-01-21T13:22:00.000-08:00

Afrika Bambaataa, pic by Bayeté Ross-Smith.

Interview By Bella Bakrania, Bayeté Ross-Smith, & Eddie Mariano

Though hip-hop may be a child of many parents, Afrika Bambaataa taught hip-hop its first steps as a movement. Not long after Kool Herc first put two turntables together, Bambaataa used the music to bring rival communities together. To this day, hip-hop’s original gangsta continues to prove that music can be a catalyst for peace, unity, and social change.

Bella Bakrania: It’s always a pleasure and kinda crazy to hear all the ‘80s tracks rocking the younger crowds once again. How do you feel about that, with your span in hip hop and being able to rock these crowds of many different generations?
Afrika Bambaataa: So many deejays have gotten into the apartheid of becoming a deejay. They say, “I am a ragga deejay, I am a hip-hop deejay, I am a trance deejay, I am a salsa deejay,” instead of just One Nation Under a Groove like George Clinton say. I remember when the techno scene was happening big and the early raves started, I used to go there and there would be 20 something deejays and they all sound the same, so I used to come and break the whole momentum, with REM “Losing My Religion” and going down to some funk and bringing it all the way back up to techno for the next deejay to take on. I was always like that. Trying to bring a whole bunch of records out and play all across the board. Trying to keep that dance scene alive in all styles of music since all music is really dance music. Everybody has got all caught up – “Dance music is only techno or house music”. No, all music— if you can dance to it—is really dance music.

BB: Tell us about your new album out—Dark Matter Moving at the Speed of Light [Afrika Bambaataa and the Millennium of the Gods]—about putting it together and the people you worked with.
It took 3 years in the making. I worked with a lot of these other great recording artists who are also producers that I enjoy a lot. Like Uberzone, Sharaz, Strictly Jeff, Boogie Brown—who was part of my group Hydraulic Funk and also used to be part of the Peech Boys back in the days— and a new young producer coming up DJ Hektek, Dukeyman from the Baltimore Breakbeats, and Gary Numan. It was great honor working with Gary Numan; it was just fun working with all these guys... And a new production team called Fort Knox Five. If you see their records, jump on them ‘cuz all their stuff is slammin’. It was great working with all these people putting out an Electro-Funk album because people were asking for it. I’ve been doing techno, hip-house, flamingo, so I had to come back and do my roots: up-tempo hip-hop.

BB: The album starts out with a tribute to the Indian musical influences. That’s a nice nod to the heavy music production that happens across the world, and has been happening, but people don’t necessarily know about it or tune in to it. Do you play much multi-lingual hip-hop?
Most definitely. I have been playing hindi/punjabi mixes for a long time. I got all the movies and they love it in Africa—the roots of India is Africa too—it’s all one family, we all come from the drum. I play everything. France to Indian style. Spanish to Italiano. There’s different music that I play from different people, sometimes with the instrumentals, sometimes with the languages. In L.A. we was killin’ the hindi remix of Dr. Dre. I went down to Singapore they were going crazy with the hindi mixes.
We got to always respect each others’ culture. That’s my thing. When I travel, I go among the people, I visit different religious places, I go with spirituality. I am not one of them so-called stars that sits in the hotel and says “gimme this, gimme that, gimme a limousine”. I get in cars that are messed up. I go on the train and go visit ‘they houses, and that’s how I understand what’s going on from place to place. I even help out on certain interviews and things and ask everybody, “why don’t you have a community center for the youth?” and start causing a movement in the country to get certain things for the youth.
Travel is a blessing from the Creator, to be among all these different people and places, and to get that vibration, that’s what [gave] the record that vibe, a lot of people tell me the record is a feel-good record with the sitar and all that.

pic by Bayeté Ross-Smith.

BB: From your span in music, you can talk to people through music—to anyone, of all generations, races, and places.
I just mix it all up, that’s what keeps the vibe going on that floor. Everything is based on that funk. If it ain’t funk, it ain’t happening. Gotta keep that funk alive.

BB: What other kinds of musical changes do you see happening in hip-hop?
I always tell people watch out, this is a very dirty game. James Brown once told me the music industry is 95% business and 5% entertainment. You always gotta be on your p’s and q’s cuz they did a lot of robbing of the early hip-hop groups, as well as the early soul, rock and roll, and reggae groups. It’s still going on now. Now with satellite [radio], it’s really crazy now. The internet’s going to wipe out a lot of stuff anyway, it’s wiping out a lot of these production studios. I did music with Muskabeatz and he came to NY and he did a whole album with me and the Biz Markie, Wu Tang and all in one day in a hotel room on a laptop, that bugged everybody out. People wasted all their crazy money going to a studio. Now you got ProTools.

BB: How do you embrace stuff like the internet and video?
We were always into what we called the electro or the technology side. When we came with Planet Rock in 1982 and we started traveling with all these synthesizers and beatboxes the unions got nervous and attacked us because a lottta people were losing their jobs. But who is better to program drum beats than a drummer? So learn the technology and don’t get mad at it. You’re always gonna have some purists. You’re gonna have people who wanna go with the digital age. It’s a balance between Yin and Yang, negative and positive, agreeable and the disagreeable.

Bayeté Ross-Smith: When you were actually making the songs for Planet Rock, did you have any idea that it could become the type of thing that moved so many people for so many years to come?
I thought it would do its thing for that year, grab a black and white community, then when I saw it snatch all different nationalities across the world it really blew my kind. Then we did the other two records after it, then we did World Destruction with Johnny Lydon of PIL. To see it still last this long and still played to death like it’s a new record and all these remixes you know that’s an honor in itself. I be amazed at how people just chop that record up in so many different ways and make it just as funky as the original.

Bella Bakrania: I’m scared to see how many records you have – you must have thousands just stockpiled. How do you manage? And only you must know where everything is.
They’re in the Dungeon, the Graveyard, and the Bat cave. If I can’t find it I just buy it again. You know that record All This Love by DeBarge? I bought that at least 5 or 6 times! ...I see it, snatch it up and hope it don’t get lost again. I be buggin’ that I can find some things. Most people are trying to run away from vinyl but thanks to hip-hop and dance deejays, they’ve kept it alive. A lot of companies are releasing a lot of these old groups again. Some of these groups are even starting to travel again cuz people are rediscovering the [their] music.

Eddie Mariano: As one of hip hop’s founding pioneers how do you feel about the state of hip hop today?
Well it’s good that you got a lot of brothers and sisters who are becoming millionaires or thousandaires. A lot of people are traveling outside of where they lived, if they lived in the ghetto or the suburb. People gotta look at these people that say hip-hop or these so called radio stations who claim to be hip-hop and R&B, that they really don’t know what hip-hop is, and when they’re playing records they just say “rap”. They forget about the deejays, emcees, breakers, aerosol graffiti writers, and even the fifth element, knowledge.
I think a lot of the rappers have always been saying say we got to form a united front where we can deal with our own problems, our own hip-hop police, and handle our own different beefs that people have, talking about westside/northside/eastside/southside and all that type of foolishness. To even watch the industry from trying to rob you and get some health benefits for a lot of the people that are in hip-hop, to take care of themselves or their family if they get sick.
If you’re gonna be a gangsta rapper, then you better have a gangsta doctor and a gangsta lawyer to take care of your gangsta ass, and a hip-hop judge to be there so when you go there you can throw your gangsta/hip-hop mix sign and symbols and you can get your gangsta ass off. If we are going to claim to be a nation and a culture internationally then we got to start thinking like that. We are seeing that Zulu Nation in this Millennium is all about law, finance, and gettin’ you some land, cuz things are gonna get real funky in this Millennium.

Bella Bakrania: It’s ugly. I feel like a lot of new hip-hop is dividing women and men, it’s just music for strip clubs with videos to match. It’s ugly for the kids.
That’s right. What is that teaching the young kids? You got a 4 year old talking about gettin’ down, “lemme go downtown and get low.” Some people got knowledge and know that but they’re being told they won’t sell music if they’re not doing this. So it’s up to the people to get the word in the street and to call these stations and complain, and hold these program directors accountable to the people. Clear Channel wanna run it by and control things, people gotta get in their ass. It’s coming back to that media monopoly. If we’re still sleeping in that Matrix state of dream, going into—as the Bible say—the Land of the Lord, then you will be taken for that slave and that zombie and next thing you know your mind will belong to the Television. And it’s gonna get deeper as time goes by.

Bam4step, originally uploaded by smallaxe.

Paris is Burning

2006-01-10T12:07:00.000-08:00

Interview by Jesse Ducker

“Hip-Hop is at its best when it’s angry.”
-Paris

During the early 1990s, Paris was just as angry and inflammatory as any Bay Area rapper out there. But for the Black Panther of hip-hop, it was anger with direction, not anger for anger's sake. With his Rakim-esque flow and dark and brooding soundscape, Paris verbally assaulted corrupt politicians, police, and racist institutions, on albums like The Devil Made Me Do It, Sleeping With the Enemy, and Guerilla Funk. They were all integral parts of the period when hip-hop tried to buck the system, rather than suck-up to it.

Paris was off the map through the late 1990s and the early 21st century, before storming back on the scene with a vengeance in 2003 with his Sonic Jihad. One of the boldest statements of the album was its cover, which depicts an airplane hurtling towards the White House, on a kamikaze mission. It was not the most subtle statement ever made, but it was certainly an angry one...

Soon after, Paris officially launched Guerilla Funk Records, sporting distribution through Groove Attack. He set out to using his label to release material by artists that the few surviving major labels were too scared to touch. Paris’ Guerilla Funk is now home to new records by legends such as Public Enemy, as well as a fresh battery of raging hip-hoppers, like dead prez. And he eventually plans to record a new album’s worth of material himself.

Paris plans on using his labels to put out positive, yet confrontational hip-hop. With a sharp perspective on the music business, media, corporate America, and politics, Paris is charging forward and taking no prisoners. And definitely staying angry.

Shout: So what’s coming out on Guerrilla Funk Records?
Paris: We’ve got the Public Enemy album, Rebirth of a Nation, which should be coming out on January 24. We’ve got an album by Kam, one by dead prez, one by T-Kash [Hard Knock Radio, The Coup]. Then we’ve got the Hard True Soldiers compilation with all those artists, plus MC Ren, Immortal Technique, Everlast, and Conscious Daughters.

How did Public Enemy end up putting out an album on Guerilla Funk?
Chuck D had a few guest verses on the Sonic Jihad album. I’ve known them for years, so we just worked something out so that they’d put out an album through Guerilla Funk. It was first going to come out this summer, but we held on for a bit. Now we’re going to release it in early 2006 with a few extra songs.

The community of positive rappers is small. There are a few of us out there that can come and say what we say. And there’s only a handful that do it well and I respect as artists. You can say what you say, but that doesn’t make it good listening.

What was it like working with Public Enemy?
Working on the Public Enemy album was a labor of love. They’re responsible for a lot of people out there rapping right now. And I’m of course a huge fan of their work.

I think the album is one of their best since at least Fear of Black Planet. Maybe since It Takes A Nation of Millions. The way I came at them, I was like, ‘I haven’t felt some of the music you guys have been putting out.’ So I told them if you allow me to have creative control, we can put out this album and I’ll break you off financially. So I produced and wrote everything for Rebirth. There’s only a stigma of ghostwriting if you let there be one. It’s not like Celine Dion writes all her lyrics. She has songwriters writing her material for her. So it went well; Chuck and Griff got in there and kicked their lyrics, and it came out sounding great.

So just to be clear, you wrote all of the lyrics for Rebirth of Nation?
Yeah, but that’s not something we’re hiding.

So how would you describe the state of hip-hop music right now?
The sad reality is that artists adjust their music to what labels are looking for. And most major labels want music that will appeal to a large audience. They want escapist material. So you get all these artists making records that haven’t paid dues and are in the game for the wrong reasons.

But corporate America keeps on trying to sell panic in hip-hop music. It’s a subtle type of racism. The music that they market that’s intended for a wide audience is negative and relies on negative imagery to sell. There’s a wider appeal on spending money. So after a while, the streets only want what the corporations are presenting.

The writing has been on the wall for a while. Hip-hop is just about making money to these labels. There’s no drive to create good albums. Now all you have is a single-driven environment, and its sold to the public as the lowest common denominator. The music is made so that it’s palatable to everyone.

So how does that make you feel, as someone who came up in a different time for this music and someone who runs their own label?
I don’t trip off of what other labels are doing. Labels are adversarial. I set up my own separate entity. It takes pressure off of what we do.

My label is for anybody that’s fed-up with music now. Fed-up with how music has been turned into a commodity. Tired of the constant drone. Tired of the cookie-cutter approach to music. They want more. I’d like to believe that the music that transcends the hypocrisy is on Guerilla Funk.

So when you sign an artist to Guerilla Funk, how do things work?
First of all, I don’t have any artists “signed” to Guerilla Funk. I pay for everything, and let everybody be a free spirit. I just ask that they don’t put out music that’s exploitive or negative. If an artist feels comfortable with the label after they’ve recorded the album, they’re free to come back. But we don’t sign anybody to deals or anything. A lot of the artists are shell-shocked by their experiences on other labels when they come to us.”

So are you surprised with all the trouble that George is facing now as President?
Bush has been an ass for years. You can tell that from watching Fahrenheit 9/11. That movie was a two-hour window of truth. But it’s going up against 24hour news network like FOX News that can spend all of its time making false accusations against it. So they will have more effect on the opinions of people who watch the network.

Does George Bush care about Black people?
George Bush doesn’t care about most people. If you’re not his neighbor or giving money to his campaign, he doesn’t give a damn about you.

How do you see what you do as being part of the solution?
The Sonic Jihad album cover was intended to be inflammatory. I was the first to be up front with it. The album was a hard-truth cocktail. My records are my tool and my weapon against the system. It’s necessary to push buttons like that. On the intended cover of Sleeping With the Enemy, I was hiding in a tree, waiting to assassinate the first George Bush. That’s envelope-pushing. You’re not getting that from a lot of acts out there. I could give a fuck less if people like it or don’t like it.

I’ll tell you this: protesting in the streets is an exercise in futility. People don’t even notice it. Now if Scalia comes up floating in the river, I bet people would notice that.

Letters to the Editor 5.1

2006-01-08T12:05:00.000-08:00

SHOUT recently ran a critical review of local emceee Nate Mezmer's Kill the Precedent. SHOUT will run critical reviews from time to time because an artist may rarely get such feedback from friends and family. So we do our best to ensure such reviews are constructive, and maybe a little funny. Mezmer took offense to this review, so we decided to run both sides of the argument here for your consideration...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Ms. Starlight has respectfully declined Mr. Mezmer's offer for writing lessons.

POINT: By Dusty Starlight
Threatening to kill George Bush, either directly or metaphorically, does not a revolutionary make. Kill the Precedent, Nate Mezmer’s self-described 'call to arms' features over a dozen indistinguishable tracks and one ill-advised anti-war ballad. Mezmer's rhymes, delivered in a grating cadence and laid over simplistic beats, veer from political rage to club-calls for the ladies to feel it in their 'g-spots.' Mezmer's energy is impressive, but what he lacks in range or original ideas he makes up for in mimicry and imitation. Simply put, Mezmer will have something to say one day; he just needs to do his homework.

COUNTERPOINT: By Nate Mezmer
I understand that a writer is free to say what they want, but as a magazine (that seems to want credibility) you should make sure YOUR writers are on point.

From the beginning the 'title' of my album is completely misinterpreted, which leads me to believe he/she did not really listen to the words, or understand the lyrics? Furthermore, the first sentence of the review is grammatically incorrect and makes no sense whatsoever. Next, the fact that one of my tracks (Bound For Glory) is called an "ill-advised" anti-war song leads me to believe that the writer either doesnt know what "ill-advised" means or that he/she is an advocate of the war in Iraq! After that, he/she calls one of my tracks (Make It Hot 451) a club call to the ladies because it refers to "g-spots" in the hook, However the entire track is about performing hip-hop live at a show and basically crushing wack mc's who rhyme for the loot. I guess he/she didnt get that?

Finally, right after he/she blatantly disses me by stating that im unoriginal and also an immitation, it is written that "Mezmer will have something to say one day; he just needs to do his homework." My question to you and your staff is, are YOU doing your homework? Im of the few MC's in the bay area right now doing anything with hip-hop and social change!!! Besides Boots from The Coup (who is on your cover) and a handful of others, there arent that many cats out there right now doing it like that.

YOU DO LIST Adisa Banjoko as one of YOUR 'Scribes,' well here is what THE BISHOP had to say about my album:
"In a world of fake thugs and overmarketed MC's, its great to hear an artist like Nate Mezmer bring the real essence back to hip-hop."

Finally, your magazine asks the question of "where the left goes wrong" and then saves a page at the back addressing the Tookie Williams execution and 'solidarity.' Well, If this review of my album is any example of a magazine that has anything to do with the left, it is clear that something has gone wrong. DO YOUR HOMEWORK and i'll keep doing mine.

PEACE,

NATE

PS_If 'Starlight' needs any writing lessons tell him/her to peep my article on Tookie!

SHOUTCAST Volume 2.5 by DJ Icewater

2005-12-17T18:07:00.000-08:00

Peep this quickie soul shakedown; DJ Icewater got out the long shovel and dug deep into the crates for you soul-brothers and -sisters. Classic Sly and the Family & The Headhunters are mixed up with contemporary joints from Lyrics Born, Colossus and the Crown City Rockers. It all goes to show that the Bay was ALWAYS funky and full of soul. Enjoy this half-hour treat for the holidays; rock it with your folks and make 'em say, "That hip-hop music is alright."

12/13/2005: San Quentin CA

2005-12-13T00:01:00.000-08:00

1201am, originally uploaded by smallaxe.

Issue Five Sneak Peek

2005-12-10T19:27:00.000-08:00

Issue 5 is Comin At YA!!!

2005-12-08T11:11:00.000-08:00

SHOUT's highly anticipated Issue Five will be on Bay Area streets December 19. Click on the image for distribution points...

SHOUT Interviews XXL's Elliot Wilson

2005-11-17T23:19:00.000-08:00

Mass props to Mr. Wilson for reaching out to the indy/undy media! Enjoy dominating the market, Elliot, and always keep an ear to the street. Click on image for interview...

Questions for Issue 5 Cops vs Lawyers:

2005-11-16T15:31:00.000-08:00

In our next issue, SHOUT will look into the yes and the no behind victorious SF Propositon H, banning handguns in city & county. Our usual suspects answer these 5:

How will it be enforced as far as penalties, gun buy-backs, etc?

Why were past gun laws insufficient for SF?

Will this curb gun crime in SF?

Will the Black Market incline?

How does H's passage affect SF's reputation?

ADVERTISE ON THIS BLOG

2005-11-09T11:37:00.000-08:00

Since shoutbayarea.com began running its exclusive all-bay podcasts, or Shoutcasts, our web traffic has blown off the scale. We currently AVERAGE +400 hits PER DAY, with an average of 20 unique visitors per day. People from all over the world are feeling SHOUT's multi-media editorial message. This is your chance to get your own message out to the world with us. At such low adrates, it is costing you to NOT advertise with us.

SPOT DIMENSIONS AND PRICING:

FORMAT AND FILE SIZE:
Ads should be saved as GIF or JPG and should be no more than 30k.

SHOUT can also help you arrange the design of your ad. We know great local designers who would be eager to help you create an effective ad.
PURCHASING TERMS:
• Payment is made via credit card over Paypal, or money order sent via mail, and full payment for all purchases must be made in advance.
• All advertising must be approved by publisher. Please note that SHOUT does not run pop-ups, pop-unders, layer ads that block viewing of the page, ads with sound, or ads featuring objectionable content (hardcore porn or weapons). Thanks for understanding!

Our readers can be your customers.We'll be happy to do what we can to help you boost your business through advertising with SHOUT. To place an ad, please email us, or call 415-441-1802.

A Little Treat by Our Homeboy Spair

2005-11-05T18:08:00.000-08:00

Actually, our lawyers and JayZ are hasing out a respectful resolution which I can no longert comment on. Until resolved. Here, have some Rich Kids on LSD. They bring it. A good story if you can follow it.

///cops vs lawyers: Richmond Police & the State of Emergency

2005-10-25T11:37:00.000-07:00

Image by Granger Davis

Interview by Mike Conway

The City of Richmond recently found its culture of street crime under intense media scrutiny. Headlines spoke nightly of "Richmond’s renewed state of gang violence." But in all memory, blocks in the 948's were always hot. Inspired by the hype, citizens lobbied for a state of emergency: curfew, checkpoints, perhaps the National Guard—drastic stuff. Luckily, it was ruled a "bad idea."
It all begs the question "how far would folks go for security?" We spoke with both Richmond's Public Affairs Officer, Lieutenant Mark Gagan, and the North Cali ACLU's Police Policies Director Mark Schlossberg about emergency states and so-called "gang violence." Here's what Lieutenant Gagan told us...

Is declaring a state of emergency the right way to go?
No. Funding was already given to us by voters, regardless of whether we created a state of emergency [or not], that was sufficient enough to create 15 additional officer positions. We divided [them] into three groups. The first and most visible would be officers on uniformed patrol, focused on the high-crime areas, doing what is called self-initiated activity. Another component would be an intelligence unit. These will be undercover detectives who will work with probation and parole officers to follow people involved in criminal activity. The third component is a bit longer commitment, which is officers in schools having a different type of relationship with the youth. Those officers will then be able to identify which kids are behaving in a way that leads to serious criminal activity.

How are police identifying gangs and gang activity?
We see territorial behavior as well as graffiti and even certain criminal activity that indicates an area is a gangland. The ironic thing about that is being able to prove gang-related crime is more difficult. Guys may be loitering and congregating in a gang area that they also happen to live in, but that doesn’t always mean they’re engaged in criminal activity. We don’t always know the motivations for a homicide, but there are times we suspect gang activity based on location, number of shooters, or the fact that other gang members were shot the night before.

How do you discern between gangs and civilians?
You don’t want to alienate civilians. And that’s where our intelligence officers put the most effort into: learning how to deal with the community and re-evaluate our interventions. Just because teenagers are hanging out in certain areas or listening to certain types of music does not mean they’re involved in gang activity, and it would be a huge mistake to treat them as such. And now you have a situation where [we’re] trying to clean up the streets and protect people, but we’re actually alienating those people we’re trying to protect.

What tools are officers given to develop this approach to gangs?
The most valuable tool I think our officers are given is the daily roll call, where officers interact with one another and expand upon certain situations and experiences from the day/shifts before. This is where the real specific and sophisticated techniques are given. We don’t have specific courses we give our officers. However, we have daily briefings where detectives and and others with insight into the community address the patrolmen that work the area and explain the crime trends. We have an elaborate crime analysis, and detectives track specific individuals known to be involved in criminal activity.

Parting thoughts: what’s to be done?
I have to say that if you asked me this question a couple of months ago, I wouldn’t know for sure. But now, I am certain that it has to start with the community and the family members of these people that commit crimes. There needs to be more honesty about what some of the youth in our community are doing. We’ve had homicides where kids have been murdered with $1500 cash, rock cocaine and a gun on their person, and family members tell us that the child wasn’t doing anything illegal. It doesn’t mean that is was okay that they were killed; it’s not okay. But we have to look at what behaviors contribute to this violence. Violence continues to exist because the community as a whole has not sent the message that we will not accept this. The police can not do this alone.

///cops vs lawyers: American Civil Liberties Union & the Richmond State of Emergency

2005-10-25T10:44:00.000-07:00

Image by Granger Davis

Interview by Mike Conway

The City of Richmond recently found its culture of street crime under intense media scrutiny. Headlines spoke nightly of "Richmond’s renewed state of gang violence." But in all memory, blocks in the 948's were always hot. Inspired by the hype, citizens lobbied for a state of emergency: curfew, checkpoints, perhaps the National Guard—drastic stuff. Luckily, it was ruled a "bad idea."
It all begs the question "how far would folks go for security?" We spoke with both Richmond's Public Affairs Officer, Lieutenant Mark Gagan, and the North Cali ACLU's Police Policies Director Mark Schlossberg about emergency states and so-called "gang violence." Here's what Director Schlossberg told us...

Is declaring a state of emergency the right way to go?
No. It strikes me that a lot of communities plagued by violence generally have underlying problems that give rise to violence. Those problems include lack of economic opportunity, poor schools, and generally unstable environments. It doesn’t take a lot to see that people want to look for something more. In order to address the issues that give rise to violent crime, you need to look at those underlying problems. Law enforcement alone will never be able to solve problems of gang violence without a broader social approach to those underlying causes. You can’t solve criminal problems with a purely law enforcement approach. Police officers can’t enforce jobs, they can’t enforce schools, so they can’t enforce broader stability.

How are police identifying gangs and gang activity?
Without talking about a specific community, [detecting gangs] ties into the issue of racial profiling where officers will view certain members of a community as more likely to be a gang member, more likely to be a criminal. Then you get disproportionate interactions with law enforcement. And even if they don’t rely [solely] on race, they may use it in combination with other factors. [However] police should investigate gang activity like they investigate any criminal activity. You employ all the kinds of investigative tools that you do generally.

How do you discern between gangs and civilians?
Community policing and outreach is important. [But] community policing is only effective when you have the trust of that community. And if law enforcement stops people of color at higher rates, it undermines that trust and ultimately makes it more difficult for police to solve crimes. There needs to be strong accountablity systems to make sure that if there is police misconduct, that it’s dealt with swiftly and a community can have confidence that its police department is held to high standards.

What tools are officers given to develop this approach to gangs?
Police are like everyone else. They’re drawn from a society that has a problem with race. When you get people from society generally and you give them the power of the badge—in some instances you put them in a police department that traditionally has had problems with race—then those attitudes are reinforced through discussions and comments. That’s not to say that police officers are constantly thinking “There’s somebody who’s African American; I’m gonna pull them over.” But if you have unconscious bias, you’re gonna probably pull over more people of color. It’s a problem of law enforcement, but it’s clearly a problem of race and society that goes way beyond that.

Parting thoughts: what’s to be done?
Richmond has a police commission that is really a de-fanged entity. The Police Commission in Richmond really needs to be strengthened in a way that allows more open access to records, and that gives the commission more power to give policy recommendations. Generally, police departments and police unions resist independent oversight. The police unions have a powerful lobby in Sacramento because they have a lot of money and their endorsement is valuable. In the last 15 years, not one proactive police accountability measure passed in the legislature. Yet there have been several measures that have whittled away at police accountability.

Shoutcast Volume 2: Spair Doses of New Bay

2005-10-11T13:31:00.000-07:00

What is New Bay anyway? Dj Spair lays it down in 15 slammin tracks that your nieghbors can get dumb to:

1: Turf Talk-"Turf Talk is Back"
2: Ant Banks-"Livin The Life"
3: The Deliquents-"That Man"
4: Too $hort-"Just Another Day"
5: EA SKI f. B-Legit & E-40-"Gangsta Funk remix"
6: Black Dynasty f. Dangeous Dame & Dru Down-"Deep East Oakland"
7: ELS-T-"The Formula"
8: PSD-"C Dey Baby"
9: Turf Talk & Keak Da Sneak-"We Need Freaks"
10: B-Legit-"Block 4 Life"
11: Chop Black-"Party FO SHO"
12: Balance-"Right Here"
13: B-Legit-"Guess Who's Back"
14: Mistah Fab, Turf Talk, E-40- "Super Sik Wid It"
15: 415-"SIDESHOW"

2005-10-07T07:04:00.000-07:00

WARNING: Winter is coming!!!

2005-10-04T10:55:00.000-07:00

Nice shot, Charlie!

Issue Four

2005-09-13T11:57:00.000-07:00

Mixed Reviews: Issue Four

2005-09-10T15:02:00.000-07:00

Send your stuff for reviews to
Shout Productions Inc
2215R Market #447
San Francisco, Ca 94114

Murs And Slug
Felt 2: A Tribute to Lisa Bonet
Rhymesayers
This album is an example of how the personality of the MCs is a key component of making an album work. The combination of Murs (member of the Bay Area based Living Legends) and Slug (of Minnesota’s Atmosphere) spend the album mostly chasing women and bragging and boasting, but somehow make the subject matter sound fresh. The tribute to the second eldest Cosby Show daughter is the second of its kind, as the pair originally paid homage to Christina Ricci a few years back.
Listening to the album gives you the idea that Slug and Murs must have just had a blast in the studio. The infuse humor and straight up lyricism to great effect on tracks like “Dirty Girl” and “Morris Day,” and wild out in the city of sin in “Life Vegas.” And while they take the time to occasionally get serious (most notably on “Marvin Gaye”), it’s mostly nothing but lyrical party y’all.

75 Degrees
the last great
hip-hop album
(Dining Room)
The Last Great Hip Hop Album, by 75 Degrees is the follow up to their 2002 debut The Rise and Fall of 75 Degrees. The group represents the Bay Area with a confidence and swagger that doesn’t care how other hip hop groups sound. The first album was recorded in Rick Bond’s dining room, and while the production quality has improved, the group’s raw and eclectic energy has remained. Drawing on both live musicians and samples from the Jackson 5 and Bjork, 75 Degrees offers up a new and funky sound that still seems to jive with an older school. This won’t be the ‘last great hip hop album’ but don’t tell that to 75 Degrees; they won’t believe it. www.75degrees.com -Hynes

bash bros.
everyday
(Squared Circle)
Named after the pair of infamous Oakland A’s home-run swatters, the Bash Bros.’ The L.E.F.T. and Piseas come straight out the Bay with this debut album. The flows and the beats are a bit creaky at times, but Everyday is an interesting first effort.
The Bash Bros. are strongest when the duo gets introspective and political on tracks like “Summer Rain,” “Only Fronting,” and “America.” The best track is “Lock and Load” where the Bros. are joined by Persevere and Style M.I.S.I.A. to administer a straight-up lyrical beatdown. Everyday is solid but ultimately unremarkable. Though Everyday feels like a first draft, Bash Bros. have the potential to make a significant sophmore. -Ducker

Baby James
Ghetto Retro
(Ghetto Retro
Recordings)
Baby James isn’t your ordinary fusion hip-hop/R&B cat. His debut album, Ghetto Retro, has a much more gritty sound then the plastic slicksters that crowd the airwaves. Reminiscent of Curtis Mayfield and Donny Hathaway with a honest dash of street, Baby J’s music is marinated in ’70s soul much more than many of his contemporaries.
Co-signed by the Atomic Dog himself, George Clinton, Baby James uses the album to reflect on the realities of everyday Oakland life, which for him involves a heavy dose of chasing females. But his music is always funky and the vocals got soul, which is more than most R&B cornballs these days can say. -Ducker

CO-Deez
Royalty
(Hella Records)
Royalty knocks like a well-landed blow right from the jump. The track “Rocksteady” kicks the album in with a skanking reggae beat and some catchy flows. The 12” choice “Final Round” stays in your dome. The one-two emcee duo Otayo Dub and Sakima did most of their own production, along with Hella Records founder TD Camp. Together, the Co-Deez offer up a rich mosaic of afro-carribean beats, classic guitar riffs and instrumentation seldom heard and sorely missed in hip-hop lately. -Conway

Kirby Dominant
Radio Shock
(Rapitalism)
Kirby Dominant has a fixation with pimpin; the cover art has him donning a black leather jacket, a white Kangol bucket, and a well-dressed lady friend; his lyrics are rife with “pimpin”; and his publishing company is called Dominant Pimpin Coalition. Bass-heavy, sample-less, vocalist-assisted beats that rates a head nod, a bottle of Dom, and your favorite breezy. It’s not all bitch-slapping though; Kirby’s poignantly humorous style offers plenty of honest charm. With his own Rapitalism Records imprint releasing the forthcoming STARR album, Kirby certainly stays on his hustle. Half-naked ho sold separately. -Folklore

Psychokinetics
Seven League Boots
(Psychokinetics)
Psychokinetics pull out all the stops with the ultra full-length Seven League Boots. The crew, made up of MCs Celsius 7 and Spidey and DJ Denizen, pack the album with 22 tracks, weaved with straight-ahead rhymes over lush, organic production. Topics run the gamut from straight emceeing (“The Hypnotist”) to lost love (“Caracas Breeze”) to party jams (“Disky Refund”) to fake revolutionaries (“Bigtime”).
Seven League is ambitious, often enjoyable and non-boring. But after a while, the album seems to collapse under its own weight. Still, it would be a good idea to give the crew a shot.
-Ducker

Tanya Morgan
Sunset
(Loud Minority)
Tanya Morgan is not Tracy Morgan’s mom. She’s not a female at all. Tanya Morgan is three emcees, (Von Pea, Ilyas and Donwill), who come at the mic raw and have brought with them a proper and thorough style to their rhymes. Sunset… the EP is a dope CD that loops the Beatles on “Oh No” and even tosses in a little Elton John down the line. This disc does have lower production quality than we’re used to; but we’re spoiled. The good news for Tanya Morgan is that those things can be improved on, while talented lyricism and on point samples, oftentimes don’t come as easily. More info at http://www.loudminoritymusic.com/ -Hynes

Various
‘05 Tour sampler
(Slept On Records)
Slept On Records delivers a cohesive introductory effort, half of it with some nice instrumentals. Nick Andre and E Da Boss’ “E Plays it Cool” is the forerunner here, laced with finely-chopped percussion snared through well-realized loops. Guests come in the form of emcees Bicasso (Living Legends), Nebulous, and Jahi & The Life, with producer/bassist Headnodic of Crown City Rockers. Bicasso’s refrain on the first track “Don’t Sleep” establishes the thesis statement. And then Nebulous is lampin’ with a nice concept on “Things Change,” wherein he flexes existential through hyperbole. -Folklore

Cops vs Lawyers: State of Emergency

2005-09-10T13:33:00.000-07:00

Interview by Mike Conway
Image by Granger Davis

The City of Richmond recently found its culture of street crime under intense media scrutiny. Headlines spoke nightly of “Richmond’s renewed state of gang violence”. But in all memory, blocks in the 948’s were always hot. Inspired by the hype, citizens lobbied for a state of emergency: curfew, checkpoints, perhaps the National Guard—drastic stuff. Luckily, it was ruled a “bad idea.”
It all begs the question “how far would folks go for security?” We spoke with both Richmond’s Public Affairs Officer, Lieutenant Mark Gagan, and the North Cali ACLU’s Police Policies Director Mark Schlossberg about emergency states and so-called “gang violence”...

Is declaring a state of emergency the right way to go?
GAGAN: No. Funding was already given to us by voters, regardless of whether we created a state of emergency [or not], that was sufficient enough to create 15 additional officer positions. We divided [them] into three groups. The first and most visible would be officers on uniformed patrol, focused on the high-crime areas, doing what is called self-initiated activity. Another component would be an intelligence unit. These will be undercover detectives who will work with probation and parole officers to follow people involved in criminal activity. The third component is a bit longer commitment, which is officers in schools having a different type of relationship with the youth. Those officers will then be able to identify which kids are behaving in a way that leads to serious criminal activity.

Schlossberg: No. It strikes me that a lot of communities plagued by violence generally have underlying problems that give rise to violence. Those problems include lack of economic opportunity, poor schools, and generally unstable environments. It doesn’t take a lot to see that people want to look for something more. In order to address the issues that give rise to violent crime, you need to look at those underlying problems. Law enforcement alone will never be able to solve problems of gang violence without a broader social approach to those underlying causes. You can’t solve criminal problems with a purely law enforcement approach. Police officers can’t enforce jobs, they can’t enforce schools, so they can’t enforce broader stability.

How are police identifying gangs and gang activity?
GAGAN: We see territorial behavior as well as graffiti and even certain criminal activity that indicates an area is a gangland. The ironic thing about that is being able to prove gang-related crime is more difficult. Guys may be loitering and congregating in a gang area that they also happen to live in, but that doesn’t always mean they’re engaged in criminal activity. We don’t always know the motivations for a homicide, but there are times we suspect gang activity based on location, number of shooters, or the fact that other gang members were shot the night before.

Schlossberg: Without talking about a specific community, [detecting gangs] ties into the issue of racial profiling where officers will view certain members of a community as more likely to be a gang member, more likely to be a criminal. Then you get disproportionate interactions with law enforcement. And even if they don’t rely [solely] on race, they may use it in combination with other factors. [However] police should investigate gang activity like they investigate any criminal activity. You employ all the kinds of investigative tools that you do generally.

How do you discern between gangs and civilians?
GAGAN: You don’t want to alienate civilians. And that’s where our intelligence officers put the most effort into: learning how to deal with the community and re-evaluate our interventions. Just because teenagers are hanging out in certain areas or listening to certain types of music does not mean they’re involved in gang activity, and it would be a huge mistake to treat them as such. And now you have a situation where [we’re] trying to clean up the streets and protect people, but we’re actually alienating those people we’re trying to protect.

Schlossberg: Community policing and outreach is important. [But] community policing is only effective when you have the trust of that community. And if law enforcement stops people of color at higher rates, it undermines that trust and ultimately makes it more difficult for police to solve crimes. There needs to be strong accountablity systems to make sure that if there is police misconduct, that it’s dealt with swiftly and a community can have confidence that its police department is held to high standards.

What tools are officers given to develop this approach to gangs?
GAGAN: The most valuable tool I think our officers are given is the daily roll call, where officers interact with one another and expand upon certain situations and experiences from the day/shifts before. This is where the real specific and sophisticated techniques are given. We don’t have specific courses we give our officers. However, we have daily briefings where detectives and and others with insight into the community address the patrolmen that work the area and explain the crime trends. We have an elaborate crime analysis, and detectives track specific individuals known to be involved in criminal activity.

Schlossberg: Police are like everyone else. They’re drawn from a society that has a problem with race. When you get people from society generally and you give them the power of the badge--—in some instances you put them in a police department that traditionally has had problems with race—then those attitudes are reinforced through discussions and comments. That’s not to say that police officers are constantly thinking “There’s somebody who’s African American; I’m gonna pull them over.” But if you have unconscious bias, you’re gonna probably pull over more people of color. It’s a problem of law enforcement, but it’s clearly a problem of race and society that goes way beyond that.

Parting thoughts: what’s to be done?
GAGAN: I have to say that if you asked me this question a couple of months ago, I wouldn’t know for sure. But now, I am certain that it has to start with the community and the family members of these people that commit crimes. There needs to be more honesty about what some of the youth in our community are doing. We’ve had homicides where kids have been murdered with $1500 cash, rock cocaine and a gun on their person, and family members tell us that the child wasn’t doing anything illegal. It doesn’t mean that is was okay that they were killed; it’s not okay. But we have to look at what behaviors contribute to this violence. Violence continues to exist because the community as a whole has not sent the message that we will not accept this. The police can not do this alone.

Schlossberg: Richmond has a police commission that is really a de-fanged entity. The Police Commission in Richmond really needs to be strengthened in a way that allows more open access to records, and that gives the commission more power to give policy recommendations. Generally, police departments and police unions resist independent oversight. The police unions have a powerful lobby in Sacramento because they have a lot of money and their endorsement is valuable. In the last 15 years, not one proactive police accountability measure passed in the legislature. Yet there have been several measures that have whittled away at police accountability.

Digable Planets Back in Orbit

2005-09-10T13:26:00.000-07:00

Interview by Thomas Hynes
Flix by Matthew Reamer

This summer, the Digable Planets came through San Francisco for two nights of funk-pumping, sold out sets. The Bay Area was privileged to be a part of their long-awaited reunion tour, which was nine years in the making. In between packed nights at the DNA Lounge and the Independent, they were nice enough to spend a frank minute with us.

SHOUT: You guys were part of an emerging sub-genre of music, combining rap with jazz. You blew up and then broke up. Everyone wants to know, what happened?
Cee-Knowledge: Well, after the second album, you know. Part of that was the time, just trying to get away, not liking it, the grind and wanting to pursue other, separate endeavors all worked as a combination for us to split.

What you been doing? Where you been living?
Butterfly: I live in Seattle. Mecca lives in Philly. And Doodlebug lives in New York. As far as what we’ve been doing, you know, working on music. And living life.

Why the reunion tour right now?
I guess it’s more about, why not right now? We’ve always been working on it, working towards it. It’s not being worked on in any kind of specific context. It’s something we always wanted to do. We always missed it; making music together. We’re friends who miss each other. It’s just life.

I heard there was an album in the works, what’s the deal with that?
We’ll probably be finished making that at the end of the summer.

What’s the difference making music back then versus right now?
The only difference is how people are different. It’s different people now. There’s a lot of materialism in hip-hop right now. A lot of material to work with. But there’s also more compact and digital techniques. So there are more beats.

Why is there so much misogyny in hip-hop right now?
Because that’s how it is in America. Anything you have going on in America, or society is going to be reflected in hip-hop. Hip-hop is always going to reflect that.

Do you see hip hop merging with jazz or other genres today?
Music is really music. Some people do this specific type of music. And others see that everything mixes in with everything else. It’s just music. As long as it’s done with vision and talent, it doesn’t really matter. It’s only seven notes, you know what I mean.

What would you like to see more of in hip hop?
Individuality.

Ladybug, Doodlebug, Butterfly. Is there any significance to insects?
Definitely. It’s community. Insects work together toward the same project.

What are you listening to right now?
Mars Volta, Kanye West, Luda. I listen to thousands of cds man. Thousands. I’m always listening to something.

Lunar Heights: Ital Style

2005-09-10T13:16:00.000-07:00

Interview by Jeremy Tanner
Flix by Scott Anderson

Lunar Heights named their last release Crescent Moon (2004) because it suggests the motion from partial to full. The progress to fullness is life itself, and can only be realized with help from the Most High. For this trio of young men, to know Him is to know that fullness.

SHOUT: I was looking through the back of your album and you guys give much love to Jah and reference Rastafarianism. Would you consider yourselves Rastafarian’s?
Sizwe: Yea, it’s not like a strategy to make money, like folks is part-time Rastafarians. We’re trying to bring something pure to the people. We’re trying to touch people’s spirits, touch people’s everything.
Jern Eye: It’s not being a part of it, it’s life, rastafari is life. Jah is the creator, the most high is a creator. So us being children of the most high makes us creators too. Our creativity is music, the heartbeat, the drum—hip-hop. Because to me that’s what hip-hop is; it derives from the drum.
Khai: And in a world like this, so chaotic with things changing every second, Jah is that one thing that’s stable and positive, that you can look to that can inspire you to do something, I think that’s where we can bring hip-hop music to a new level.

And when you listen to other rap songs can you tell if it’s pure?
Jern: You can tell if they feel it, you know when it comes from a good source. When it comes from the heart you can tell.

How can you tell when it doesn’t?
Khai: You listen to it and everything just feels strange. You gotta humble up to speak from the heart. If you’re not humble in your heart when you’re speaking, you can’t speak from the heart—you speak from your alter-ego and that’s some shit that even you don’t believe.

What elements in day-to-day life try to keep you guys from making your music?
Khai: Law-enforcement, 9-to-5’s, having to get the constant paycheck and not being able to focus on your art.
Sizwe: I think having a family. Being responsible for a family kinda slows me down, makes me think wisely about it. I can’t just go overseas on some bullshit, I have to have it together. I can’t just do a show for $50 with a four-man crew.

There’s a lot out there that’s trying to slow you down, what keeps you guys going?
Sizwe: Spirit, man! It’s that person that will wake up and still keep their body in shape, still write a rhyme, go to the studio and lay it down in 30 minutes. It’s that kind of determination; because when you’re working in a collective you’re only as good as the next man.

When you’re not making music, what are you guys doing? Not the job, forget the job, what do you like to do?
Jern: Just hanging out with my girl, watching movies or whatever. I just do the things any regular dude does.
Sizwe: It’s just about being around good people, eating good food, just real-life focusing on real things. Seeing birds, forests, trees. Also training, staying fit. That’s what I like to do in my spare time, be a positive light, organize youth programs.
Khai: There’s families, health care, baby mamas, drugs in the family, a lot of things. So for me, I’m just always trying to be that solid rock that people can look to and be that solid rock for myself to stand firm on.

As far as Lunar Heights goes, you guys are pushing right now. Where do you want to find yourselves in five years?
Jern: We’re universal artists, we’re not just the Bay. We see ourselves in Japan, France, East Coast, West Coast. We want to make that kind of impact musically and still be consistent as artists.
Sizwe: I want to be like, “Damn Khai, are we going on tour again? We about to hit Australia?” But still modest and humble. By the end of those five years we’ll be like okay, word. Khai will probably have like three kids by that time! (laughter)

Azeem: Always Facing East

2005-09-10T13:10:00.000-07:00

DJ Premier: That Motherfucker!

2005-09-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

Interview by Thomas Hynes and Mike Conway
Flick by Matthew Reamer

At 5pm., Mike and I finished a couple drinks and set out to Mighty to see if we could meet the legendary DJ Premier. We were just gonna run up on the club and ask him a few questions. It would only take a minute…. Instead we waited ten hours. When finally, at 3am, as the freshly-rocked crowd started milling home, we got our interview with one of hip-hop’s original super-producers and a true innovator...

SHOUT: Can we ask you a few questions?
PRIMO: Better make it quick.

Hynes: With a proper kit costing upwards of $1,000, has deejaying gotten too expensive for young kids to get into?
No, because, what we do is a professional thing, so the equipment is gonna cost us some money. But that just means that the quality of the product is gonna enhance the deejay doing his thing.

Conway: You have one of the tightest tattoos I’ve ever seen on your forearm. When did you decide to get that?
Reputation? When I was on tour with Rage Against the Machine, their tattoo artist had done two tattoos for me, already. His name is Gary Cosmo. It’s a dedication to my relatives that were involved in my getting into music. And I put my mama on my other forearm. I was reading this book, The 48 Rules of Power on the plane when we were going back home from the Rage Against the Machine tour. It was their last show at the Staples Center. Ice T came on stage, M.O.P., Tommy Lee from Motley Crue, Fred Durst and everything. Everybody was hanging out and it was just crazy that night.

Hynes: What are you listening to right now?
Jill Scott’s new album. I’m listening to The Game. The Game shit is hot, that’s a real solid album. I’m listening to R.A. the Rugged Man. I’m listening to Nas, Street’s Disciple. And I’m listening to the Van Hunt, too.

With all respect to Public Enemy and Apocalypse 91, do you think Flavor Flav has lost his mind?
(Laughter) That’s the thing, Flavor Flav has always been bugged out like that. You know, I watch the shit just to see what’s next and how they treat him and all that. But Flavor’s not a dumb dude. That dude know a lot. He’s a very intelligent dude.

You’ve been at this for over 15 years, and you’ve seen hip-hop come a long way in becoming assimilated into our culture. Do you think we’ll ever see the days of a 50 Cent lunch box or a Nate Dogg Xmas album?
You mean like Sccoby Doo and all that shit? That’s very possible. Shit, I think I’m gonna start one of those.

Tapes, 8-tracks, cds have come and gone, even cds are about to become obsolete. Why has vinyl endured?
It’s the foundation of our format. Before any cds, before 8-tracks, there was always vinyl. There was 78s and all that, and 10” records and 7” records. And again, this format stretches out even longer, you know. When they cut vinyl out of rock and roll albums and country albums, hip-hop albums were still putting vinyl out. So that means, you still go to a record store and they got a 12” rack. It’s meant to be.

If there were a deejay you could battle, who would it be?
But I’m not a battle deejay. I’m a rhythm deejay. I’m good with rhythmic scratches. I can do a couple little things. But I ain’t on the level of Jazzy Jeff and Aladdin and DJ Scratch from EPMD and Roc Raida and all of them. Them dudes are sick. I would sit there and be like, what the fuck are y’all doin?” I’m still open like that. But with the rhythms, I’m that motherfucker. With the scratch hooks, I’m that motherfucker. Making beats, I’m that motherfucker.

Balance Weighs in on the Hustle

2005-09-10T01:27:00.000-07:00

Flix by Bayeté Ross-Smith
Story by Folklore

The Bay Area is used to being overcast in a vaporous solitude, shrouding its populace within its own hip-hop microcosm. The only problem with a micro-economy is it’s inherently small. With independent business comes the need for independent funding and the necessity to hustle without Daddy Warner-bucks’ bankroll.

This has been a mixed blessing for artists like Balance, though. While attempting to infiltrate the industry cigar party, Balance and his team of entrepreneurs have developed an innovative marketing strategy that has brought them not only media exposure but also a renewed sense of Bay Area pride.

In 1999, Balance noticed the success of East Coast mixtapes as a means of gathering an audience in the Bay. DJs T-Ski (Mad Idiot) and Vlad the Butcher gave him recurring guest-spots on their mixtapes, and he began producing and distributing his own.

The “Bay Area Mixtape King” moniker came courtesy of DJ Mind Motion when he heard Balance had logged four hundred mixtape appearances. It’s also the title of his most recent mixtape.

In 2002, he earned another title on Sway and King Tech’s legendary “Wake Up Show”, when Balance and Locksmith (of The Frontline) were anointed by Sway to spearhead a new Bay Area movement, thus knighting them the “New Bay”. Along with The Frontline, Federation, Turf Talk, Mistah Fab, The Team and others throughout the Bay, Balance parlayed the title into a tour de force that’s put the hip-hop world on notice.

“There’s always more strength in numbers,” reaffirms Balance. “I mean I’ll tell you straight up, when I first started, The Team, Frontline, Mistah Fab, all these artists, we all benefited from being together and calling ourselves the ‘New Bay.’ There’s no way a new artist would get in a magazine by themselves… but when you have a collective of new artists and you have a name for these new artists like ‘New Bay,’ then shit, that’s something to write about.”

The title “New Bay” has the literal “new artist from the Bay” translation, but to Balance it’s symbolic of a movement, without disrespecting anything that might be considered “Old Bay”.

“Whenever you say ‘the Bay Area,’ people automatically have this idea of the past. There’s nothing wrong with the past because if it wasn’t for the Bay Area there’d be none of these CEOs running their own labels and shit. I feel like ‘New Bay’ is a great term because it brings some new life to the term Bay Area. The whole hustle mentality comes from the Bay Area: E40, Too Short, JT. I think ‘New Bay’ just means [we’re] reinventing ourselves, understanding that, appreciating that, and then being like, ‘Fuck it, we gonna come with some heat now.’

“At first we really didn’t understand how big it was—to us it meant we were just new artists from the Bay Area,” explains Balance. “But, it actually meant a lot more than that, and today I feel that ‘New Bay’ means -– it’s basically like our Harlem Renaissance.”

Balance put himself on a strict promotional regimen, handing out CDs at venues the old fashioned way, as those before him had. “I give out free CDs all the time,” says Balance. “Nobody’s gonna buy your CD if they don’t know who you are. One of the ways I do it is the old idea of letting somebody hear the product for free and then hopefully when they come back around they’ll buy the shit.”

Just as mixtapes evolved from the hiss of a cassette to the clarity of a CD, Balance adapted the old analog tape hustle to the digital grind of cyberspace.

“[It’s the] same principle: getting your music directly to the people. We’re in a new generation and a lot of kids are on the internet,” explains Balance. “So for me, the internet and mixtapes were my outlet, and I can actually say these were new things that I was tryin’. Four years ago, everybody was like, ‘What the fuck are you rappin’ on all these mixtapes for, dude?’ ‘Cause it never really had been done like that before.”

With cameos from Royce Da 5’9”, E40, Zion I, The Game, Chamillionaire, amongst others, his mixtapes have been moving steadily and building up to a full-length release. Balance has been approached by labels such as Rap-A-Lot for said debut album, but has yet to settle with one. His self-titled debut album will feature The Frontline and Houston’s Chamillionaire on vocals, and E-A-Ski, Jake One, J. Wells, Shonuff, and Trackademics on production. Following the one-off deal of his first formal release, Balance plans to release a concept album called The Day Cali Died.

The general public has heard some recent tight West Coast shit from the likes of JT the Bigga Figga’s former protégé, The Game, but Balance and the New Bay also intend to uplift the Bay to the status in which it’s people hold it.

Shouldering a responsibility of that magnitude is no saunter down candycane
lane. Maintaining ambition in a weathering environment is no joyride either.

“I ain’t gonna sit here and lie. Every week I be wantin’ to quit this shit,” admits Balance, laughing. “[But] there’ll always be something that’ll make me want to stay with it. That one thing could be a fan that’ll be like, ‘Yo, Balance, when’s your album coming out? I’m waitin’ for that shit.

Whether or not ‘05 Bay Area hip-hop will bear enough brilliance to bring us within legitimate analogy range to 1925 Harlem is yet to be seen. What’s being heard from Balance’s New Bay—and a multitude of other independent Bay Area artists spanning hip-hop’s diameter—is both creating it’s own geographically-distinct industry and attracting due attention from monolithic labels who wonder where their share is.

Revolution is the product of discontent, and Balance flipped his discontent into a relentless mixtape and internet campaign. He’s seen substantial independent success and media exposure, but the significance of New Bay is larger than the sum of its emcees. It’s a re-affirmation for Bay Area hip-hop heads who know our thang is going on.

Hip Hop's Dirty Little Secret

2005-09-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

By Thomas Hynes

Image is its own instrument in hip-hop. Rappers today seem more loc'ed than ever, sporting that "fresh on parole look." And as society experiments with its newest chemical fixation, so too does hip-hop take a curious look towards steroids.

Like instruments or lyrics, drugs are an important facet in the musical process. Parker, Coltrane and Cobain had their heroin. Keith Richards has literally done a ton (2000 lbs., 907.19 kg.) of cocaine. You have to fail a urinalysis to even get signed at some labels.

Hip-hop has never shied away from getting high either. You got chronic, crack rock, hare-ron, blunts, chewies, woolies... Drugs are as much a part of the hip-hop lexicon as rims or baby-mammas.

Recently, steroids have come into the spotlight—in sports. Should it come as a surprise that hip-hop has also injected itself with image-enhancing drugs? Robin Leach would put it like "From LL Cool J to 50Cent to Usher, buff is the new bling-bling in rap."

Would hip-hop stars go the length some athletes have by poisoning themselves in order to achieve that jacked, yolked look? "The bottom line," according to Annette Allen, personal trainer to the stars, "is that steroids work. If a person wants to get bulked up and build muscle as fast as they can, steroids do work and quickly." Even with side effects that include permanently shrunken testicles, aggressive behavior, "backne," and man-boobs, people are going to continue to use. Because Allen says, "like plastic surgery, it might be a superficial alternative, but it does work. The bottom line is that steroids are for people who can't wait."

Hip-hop scholars concur. Adisa Banjoko, author of Lyrical Swords: Hip-Hop and Politics in the Mix, image is everything in hip-hop right now. He says "there is no hip-hop without image. KRS ONE was the first to talk about how music videos hurt hip-hop because people became distracted by the images and stopped paying attention to the nature of the art. As hip-hop grew in the age of video, it definitely changed the way that it was viewed."

The image movement really took hold once LL Cool J took his shirt off. "LL began working out and along with other emcees to register that they were tough. Toughness was [and is] a part of hip-hop. And if you wanted respect in hip-hop you not only had to be raw on the mic, you also had to let people know physically you were a threat."

This started to accelerate. And recently, hip-hop has not done much to get away from "image" and back on message. "Let's face it, tough is sexy." Adisa adds, "hip-hop cats are definitely using 'roids. Because if you look at the lives they live in general, [these] are not clean lifestyles; steroids make it so you could have a body like that, running round drinking 40s."

Musician or otherwise, being tough will always be a part of the urban lifestyle, and hip-hop will always be connected to that. But what will the extremes be? While being yolked is hyped everywhere in hip-hop, being healthy is not. And consider who this message translates to the youth. "Lots of kids," according to Adisa, "are going to do what they have to. Kids been taking steroids for years." But as Adisa likes to point out: steroids do not get you pro: talent, patience and dedication do.

Hurricane Media and the Press Disaster

2005-09-09T21:06:00.000-07:00

image AFP/Getty Images/Joe Raedle

Hurricane Katrina has been one of the most intense and tragic of all real-life dramas. Ironically, from a mass culture obsessed with "realityTV," the true realities of this disaster were largely hidden or poorly presented in the media. It's emblematic of the wider dissonance between the people and the press. Yet, there were a few shining examples of what journalism is all about that deserve some props. Here's a few:

NPR's "All Things Considered" broadcasted this hard-news gem.

Jeff Chang is right on point, and has been, calling out the politics of abandonment. It's a dead-on denouncement of the Bush administration's legacy of criminal negligence—a variation of one of the themes he articulates in his book Can't Stop Won't Stop.

Or better yet, I think a Bush speaks best of how outrageously ignorant the Bush is.

And finally, —my personal favorite: —leave it to The Onion to level this dis on what has typified the deplorable biases revealed in language usage by the news:

White Foragers Report Threat Of Black Looters
NEW ORLEANS: —Throughout the Gulf Coast, Caucasian suburbanites attempting to gather food and drink in the shattered wreckage of shopping districts have reported seeing African Americans "looting snacks and beer from damaged businesses." "I was in the abandoned Wal-Mart gathering an air mattress so I could float out the potato chips, beef jerky, and Budweiser I'd managed to find," said white survivor Lars Wrightson, who had carefully selected foodstuffs whose salt and alcohol content provide protection against contamination. "Then I look up, and I see a whole family of [African-Americans] going straight for the booze. Hell, you could see they had already looted a fortune in diapers." Radio stations still in operation are advising store owners and white people in the affected areas to locate firearms in sporting-goods stores in order to protect themselves against marauding blacks looting gun shops.

And in a parting positive note, I just got back from Red Cross training today, where I am working to get deployed to the affected areas. There, it struck me; the people in that room with me, all rarin to go and help, that is America. While our government prefers to show its true colors in the rockets red glare from bombs blazing half a world away, this true America -- the America of its people -- is found in countless rooms like these: where ever people come together to give time out of their own lives for the aid of total strangers that have lost everything. Yes, this is the worst disaster in a century; and yes, this is by far the most colossal example of a for-profit government fosaking its constituents. But there is also a great, mounting concern among Americans, of a magnitude no less potent than of the tragedy itself. That is the America I defended as a Marine, and it is that one I hope to serve through the Red Cross.

Issue Four Cover

2005-08-28T09:58:00.000-07:00

Cover shot by Bayeté Ross-Smith

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2005-08-16T23:56:00.000-07:00

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Calendar of Events

2005-08-15T12:07:00.000-07:00

The Indian Summer is coming and you best be ready to spend some time outdoors. Check out our events calendar and seize the Bay...

GET @ US WITH EVENTS, WE'LL ADD THEM

The SHOUTCAST is on baby!

2005-08-05T22:26:00.000-07:00

We're pleased to introduce the first of its kind: a podcast of the Bay Area's finest hip-hop artists. Click here to download the shit directly, import it to your iPod/Mp3 Player and you're rollin' with over 40 minutes of tight flows and beats only the Bay can bang out.

Or, with iTunes:
Click on "Advanced" and select "Subscribe to Podcast". iTunes then prompts you to enter a URL. Copy and paste this link:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Shoutbayarea

and you're in biznass!

Much love to DJ Icewater, the mixtape master, who put it all together.

VOLUME ONE PLAYLIST:
1. "Piano Sample" DJ Platurn
2. "Frogs" Alpha Zeta (MC Azeem/DJ Zeph)
3. "Balance" Crown City Rockers f. Scarub
4. "Rocksteady" Co-Deez
5. "Bird's Eye View" Zion I
6. "No More Dating Deejays" Dj Sake One
7. "Interlude" Lunar Heights
8. "Things Change" Nebulus
9. "Run the Line" Peanut Butter Wolf f. Rasco & QBert
10. "People Like Me" Joyo Velarde
11. "Rubber Glue" Alpha Zeta (MC Azeem/DJ Zeph)
12. "Half & Half" Lunar Heights
13. "Declaration" Bucc Rogers
14. "Rain Makes it Perfect" The Dime
15. "The Final Round" Co-Deez

The Age of Divisadero Soul (Issue Two)

2005-07-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

Divisadero,-SF-1944, originally uploaded by smallaxe.

A Brief Future of Hip-Hop Part 1:

2005-07-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

By Andrew Strawder

CLICK HERE FOR PART TWO

Inspector Gary Delagnes, President of the SF Police Officer's Association

2005-07-08T16:30:00.000-07:00

In an exclusive interview with SHOUT,
Inspector Delagnes speaks his mind:

CLICK HERE FOR ENTIRE INTERVIEW
{ border: solid 2px #000000; } Image by Granger Davis

Mixmaster Mike

2005-07-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

MixmasterMike, Illustration by Andrew Strawder.

Cops vs Lawyers: RIAA vs Semiotic Democracy

2005-06-27T11:05:00.000-07:00

{ border: solid 2px #000000; } Image by Granger Davis

The Supreme Court ruled against filesharing technologies like Grokster and Limewire today, in a case that was brought before it by groups like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). They successfully argued that such peer-to-peer networks are solely designed to get around copyright law. However, if you are a musician hustling to reach an audience, you know that filesharing is also a great way to get around the music industry and distribute your product worldwide. In issue three, SHOUT ran the following article leading up to the high court's decision...

By Mike Conway

The creative landscape is changing. Technologies like Pro Tools, the iPod, and peer-to-peer networks have become mainstream in the digital age, creating a wild frontier of sorts in music. Rather than struggling to break into radio, musicians can find a mass audience without a major record deal. These technologies are fostering the rise of “semiotic democracy”—where more and more people are no longer passive consumers of mass media, but active participants in creating culture.

The music industry is part of a waning guard, and it fears it will be eclipsed by this new landscape. But the industry refuses to simply take a bow, or even roll with these changes. Instead, it has released the hounds of law onto the backbone of semiotic democracy: the internet...

CLICK HERE FOR ENTIRE STORY

Peanut Butter Wolf

2005-06-22T18:46:00.000-07:00

Peanut Butter Wolf
Pic Courtesy of Stones Throw Records.

Lunar Heights Rockin It (CLICK HERE)

2005-06-18T17:49:00.000-07:00

The Gift of Gab and Lateef the Truthspeaker (Issue One)

2005-06-15T21:12:00.000-07:00

pic by Bayeté Ross-Smith.
story by Mike Conway

Quannum Emcees The Gift of Gab and Lateef the Truthspeaker are not in the same “band”, they’re part of something much bigger...

Hip-hop is rarely the story of individuals. It’s more often the chronicle of crews. These tight social units come together over time, become family and sometimes emerge as dynasties. Over thirty years and counting and who knows what’s next for hip-hop?

One crew that will give you a good idea is the folks from Quannum collective. They have been hip-hop for well over a decade. And in 2004 Quannum has emerged with guns blazing as both a crew and a recording label LLC.

CLICK HERE FOR ENTIRE STORY

MIXED REVIEWS

2005-06-08T20:18:00.000-07:00

DJ Platurn
So This is De La Heaven
(Future Primitive)
This one’s been out for a while, but there’s some albums you play over and over like they’re new. I’ve rocked So this is De La Heaven so much that the CD has grooves in it. DJ Platurn’s recipe is simple: combine classic De La Soul jams with some extended play of vinyl sampled by the Plugs, sprinkle with slick turntablism and POW! You get a unique perspective into one of raps most influential groups.
Not just a tribute album to De La Soul, De La Heaven is also a meditation on the music that influenced them. Platurn moves seamlessly from tracks by Maceo Parker, Michael Jackson, and Funkadelic to nostalgic De La Soul raps with walk-ons by Q-Tip & Mos Def. That flow makes it just right in any situation: whether you’re deep in thought, running around, or undressing with your favorite so-and-so. -Conway
Sample Tracks:
Piano Sample
Sunshine High

JBo & JJEq are the Nightcrawlers
Catacombs
(ILC Music)
Catacombs is an honest expression by emcees JBO and JJEQ of profound life experiences matched with gritty, relentless beats. They succeed with a rough vocal quality similar to that of Xzibit and a story-telling style with distinctly underground tones reminiscent of Atmosphere. Crime, poverty and addiction thrive in the tunnels of the Catacombs. This is the home of JBO and JJEQ who describe the qualities that help them navigate these shady passageways—determination, focus, drive, experience and a tight grip on reality. This is an underground production all the way, so if you don’t catch them hustlin’ the CD outside a show, check it out at their site. -J.Tanner
Sample Tracks:
Barternder
Open Road
Vibe

DJ Sake1
Soul Deluxxe Vol.3
((((Local 1200)))
Soul Deluxxe Vol. 3 by Sake One is a mixtape that draws you onto the dancefloor and gives you no option but to move. Your hips will move easily as Goapele’s silky vocals roll off of her tongue in the 9th Wonder remix of “Catch 22”. This velvety blend of jazz, soul, funk and reggae inspires both emotionally and intellectually. Lumumba’s meditative track “Sing With the Birds” contrasts the modern malfunctions of society to the seamless existence of a bird. Sake One demands effort from the listener, but not without dropping some humor in, as on “No More Dating DJs”. San Francisco’s founder of the (((Local 1200))) Sound System handpicked these tracks to land both stirring introspection and a body-rockin party on listeners. Clearly, Sake didn’t miss with Soul Deluxxe 3. -J.Tanner
Sample Tracks:
(Medley)

Various Artists
Bay Area Funk Vol.1
(Ubiquity)
Bay Area Funk is your guide to the Bay’s consistent tradition of gettin’ down. As with hip-hop today, funk clung like summer fog here in the 1960s and ‘70s. Before there was Sly, Santana or Graham Central, there was Marvin Holmes, Johnny Talbot, and Eugene Blacknell. These cats pioneered their own brand of funk that heavily influenced their more-famous counterparts (sound familiar?). They fused blues and latin sounds with down-south funk, and were part of a whole scene of like-minded groups.
DJ Riddm, who put together this collection, says “the mission of this compilation was to get these artists the respect and exposure they deserve.” A must-have for funkologists and those truly down with the Bay. -Conway
Sample Tracks:
Rodger Collins: "Foxy Girls in Oakland"
Little Denise: "Check Me Out"
Pi-R-Square" "Fantasy"

Michael Franti Tours Iraq

2005-06-02T16:08:00.000-07:00

franti&soldiers, originally uploaded by smallaxe.

Mac Dre's Memorial Mural

2005-06-01T17:57:00.000-07:00

Destruction gives way to creativity once again...

Mac-Dre, Pic by Elissa Curtis.

Langton & Harrison, SF

MacDre-whole, Pic by Elissa Curtis.

MacDre-whole2, Pic by Elissa Curtis.

Zion I

2005-06-01T17:45:00.000-07:00

Zion I, Pic by Matt Reamer.

Beni B

2005-06-01T17:29:00.000-07:00

Beni B
Pic by Matt Reamer.

Issue Three Cover

2005-05-02T23:58:00.001-07:00

CLICK HERE TO FIND A COPY

Issue Three Cover, Pic by Matt Reamer.

Zion I

2005-05-02T23:53:00.000-07:00

Zion I, Pic by Matt Reamer.

By Folklore

Smoking herb certainly alleviates the burden of transcribing a lengthy interview, but it does nothing for writing witty opening lines. Good music gets us through these moments, and Bay Area denizens Zion I–producer Amp Live and emcee Zion–have returned to offer your ears some inspiration in the form of True & Livin’, their third full-length effort.

More significantly, it’s the first album released exclusively through their own label, Live Up, submerging their deep water slang further into both financial and record pools. Amp says, “We were able to work with a couple of people from the first label and put a together a tight infrastructure, so this album, True & Livin’, came off our own label. This is a big project.”

Time management may be a remedial class for detention-prone high schoolers, but it’s also a life lesson that aspiring professionals (musicians or otherwise) should enroll in.

“We had a hectic schedule this year,” recounts Zion. “We went from being in the studio almost every day, to goin’ on tour, to comin’ back, to bein’ back in the studio, to goin’ back out, to bein’ in the studio again to mix and master. And it’s like we really didn’t have too much of a break. With other albums before, Mind Over Matter took like four years to make and Deep Water Slang took about two-and-a-half [to] three years to make; this album took one year. So it’s basically takin’ all of your emotional experiences, takin’ photographs of how you feel, and then tryin’ to compile them and put ‘em together in a presentable way.”

A quick flip through the Zion I photo album illustrates the effort involved in creating and sustaining their career. While a knee-high Amp Live was playing drums and piano for his church and developing beats in San Antonio, Texas, Zion’s formative years were spent memorizing the lyrics to “The Message” and “Sucka DJ’s” in Philly. In 1991, they met while attending Morehouse College in a pre-Southernplayalistic ATL. The two added two other members, the sum of which comprised their first group Metafour. Though inked to Tommy Boy, Amp & Zion opted to split and chase the sun west.

“From the Metafour days till now, I think the real difference is that we just know more about the business,” says Zion. “And we’re more concerned about makin’ things happen correctly, ‘cause back then we didn’t know shit, and we thought we did. We thought all you had to do was make a good record and make a dope video. That’s what I thought the extent of doing music was, and at this point we understand marketing and promotional tools, and promotion in radio and all the different factors that come into it.”

Nu Gruv Alliance released Zion I’s first album, Mind Over Matter in 2000 to substantial acclaim. Deep Water Slang followed in 2003 on Live Up/Raptivism, but failed to propel them across the multi-demographic divide.

“Mind Over Matter and Deep Water Slang came out on different labels, and those projects didn’t necessarily go as well as they should’ve,” says Amp. “So when we had the opportunity, we wanted to have all control over our product.”

Independent success requires not only control of the product, but control of the live crowd as well. The tour hustle pushed them onstage amongst the inimitable Kool Keith, the lung-capacious Lyrics Born, the funky human Del, the three plugs De La Soul, the misnomered Jurassic 5, the mighty Mos Def, and the legendary Roots crew. Zion I has also been billed on the MTV2/Mountain Dew Circuit Breakout tour for the past two years.

This allowed them time to develop an album that truly reflects their current living situation.

“With this album, we wanted to purvey the true sense of hip-hop and what it is to us as individuals, without pretense, without gimmicks” says Zion. “This is how we live, this is our daily experience of life. And hip-hop is our life, so this is our offering. It’s artwork that’s true, and it’s a living work, it’s a body of work because we live it and we give it to people so they can experience it. It’s just true art for art’s sake for people to enjoy and get a good vibe from.”

The artists that Zion I recruited to assist them in crafting True & Livin’ are of the same ilk: genuine. The Gift of Gab, Del, Aesop Rock, Talib Kweli, and Fred Hampton Jr.; each lend their respective voices and visions.

“We wanted to have something with like a different flavor,” explains Amp. “The emcees we have on this album are really tight and professional, so we up our game to make sure the music was good enough to match with them.”

The music’s always been good, albeit different, but it’s the variety of sound that gives Amp’s beats distinction. From Mind Over Matter’s drum-n-bass influenced percussion to Deep Water Slang’s synth-funk basslines, his technique remains simply his.

“I think with Deep Water Slang I used more live instrumentation in terms of like keyboard and that type of stuff, but on this album it’s more like drums, guitar, bass–like the real basic type of stuff, not as much synthesizer stuff,” says Amp. “So it’s just a different type of approach.”

Zion’s approach remains true to himself, rooted in his surroundings, as exhibited on “The Bay”: We hardly get the love ‘cause we close to L.A. / we got our own slang, but everybody took it…

While artists like Too Short, E40, Paris, Hieroglyphics, and Living Legends have created various aspects of substance, swagger, slang, and sales, they’ve been oft-overlooked as innovators.

“One of the main things we feel is that bein’ from the Bay Area like we had a lot of shine in the early ‘90s through maybe the mid-’90s, and after that attention was definitely taken away from the Bay,” says Zion. “New York and L.A. definitely (and Atlanta now) are hubs of music, but I think it’s pretty well known that the Bay Area’s a place where there’s always been a lot of creativity and progressive thought. But still, right now we’re definitely not getting as many spins or people aren’t getting signed out of the Bay.”

Though might take a minute to develop into financial success, the independent route develops character and a strong work ethic that might otherwise never come into fruition.

“There’s young guys comin’ up, there’s older dudes who have more knowledge, and it’s like I think that music is all about learning to master yourself, to communicate your life experience so somebody else can feel you,” says Zion. “I don’t think you’d ever really master that, I think it’s a continual process. So it’s a blessing, but it’s hard work too… You have to kinda go inside yourself and find that space, and learn what it takes to make dope art.”

Mixmaster Mike

2005-05-02T23:21:00.000-07:00

MixmasterMike, Illustration by Andrew Strawder.

By Charlie Russo

Deep in the annals of hip-hop history, the origin of the deejay’s scratch is filed under the year 1975 and reads like this: “Eleven years old and practicing deejaying on his older brother’s turntables, Theodore Livingston grabbed for the record as his mom shouted at him to turn the music down. Hearing an odd scratching sound through his headphones as the vinyl moved in his grasp, Theodore knew he was on to something.” Livingston eventually became known as Grandwizard Theodore and was credited as the inventor of both the scratch and needle drop techniques.

Thirty years later, hip-hop has begun to outsell rock music in America, and early forefathers such as Grandwizard Theordore have been succeeded by a lengthy list of turntable talent: DJ Premier, Q-Bert, Z-Trip, Cut Chemist...and of course, Mixmaster Mike. These names may not necessarily be classified as early inventors, but are sure to be remembered as major pioneers all the same.

That said, Mixmaster Mike may very well be remembered as the John Coltrane of turntablism: a musician who caused a quantum leap in the evolution of an already developing art form.

As a three-time DMC world deejay champion as well as the frequently fourth Beastie Boy, Mixmaster Mike cites the road back to the founders as the way for hip-hop to move ahead. ”hip-hop is in a state of re-evaluation,” he explains, ”People need to look back to how hip-hop formed in order to move it forward. I always revert to Grandmaster Flash, The Cold Crush Brothers, and—of all inspirations—to Grandwizard Theodore... back to when hip-hop was a lot of fun.”

It’s not surprising to hear the Mixmaster place emphasis on the old school’s upbeat brand of hip-hop. Anyone who has seen Mike perform knows that amongst all the scratch & whir wizardry, the cut-ups of an eclectic music library, and the barrage of beats... the Mixmaster just knows how to bring a party.

It’s a fact that Bay Area residents were aware of Mike long before he signed on with the Beastie Boys. Though he no longer lives in Northern California, it was during his time here in the foggy Bay that Mike truly became the Mixmaster.

“The Bay Area is and has always been underground,” Mike says in assessing the area’s place in hip-hop culture. “I know my boys Q-Bert, Shortkut and those heads are definitely holding it down,” he adds, “so I’m sure that I left the Bay Area in good hands.”

No arguments there. When it comes to his cohorts around the Bay, good hands are not hard to come by. After the string of DMC championships in the mid-’90s, Mike had joined forces with Yoga Frog, Q-Bert, Shortkut, and D-Styles to form the Invisible Skratch Picklez; the deejay wrecking crew that put the Bay Area in the forefront of the ever-expanding art of turntablism.

Though the Picklez have since disbanded, the Mixmaster still has the itch to keep on scratchin’. In addition to his key role on the latest Beastie Boys’ release To the Five Boroughs, Mike recently unleashed his own mixmonster, Bangzilla.

“This album was like 3 years in the process,” he explains. “I made it in different parts while in many different places - on tour, on planes - and then I tied it all together.”

Bangzilla is certainly an altered beast, showcasing a wide range of beats and scratching techniques, as well as samples that evaporate just as you’re on the verge of recognizing them. On a more subtle level, the dizzying collision of soundscapes seems to have an underlying theme, often coming across like the soundtrack to battles in a galaxy far, far away. “I had 14 tracks to work with and to think about different ways to manipulate music,” Mike says. “I never went about making this album as a concept album... it just came out that way.”

The balance between solo projects like Bangzilla and his role as the Beasties’ beat boy is a particular distinction, one that Mike characterizes as totally different worlds. “It’s like split personalities going on,” he says. “As a solo artist versus being in the group and adding my take on the songs.”

More than just in the studio, it is a contrast that Mike notices considerably in the live arena. ”Doing solo shows you have to hold up your audience,” he explains, “it takes a lot of endurance to do an hour-long show with non-stop tricks. Scratching with the boys I can choose my spots and give the show a flow.”

And though he may no longer be an official resident, the Mixmaster continues to reflect the Bay Areas contribution to hip-hop as a whole: rarely center stage, but still providing the hottest moments of the night.

Afrika Bambaataa

2005-05-02T23:17:00.000-07:00

Afrika Bambaataa, pic by Bayeté Ross-Smith.

pic by Bayeté Ross-Smith.

Bam4step, originally uploaded by smallaxe.

Cops vs Lawyers: RIAA vs Semiotic Democracy

2005-05-02T23:08:00.000-07:00

Image by Granger Davis

By Mike Conway

The creative landscape is changing. Technologies like Pro Tools, the iPod, and peer-to-peer networks have become mainstream in the digital age, creating a wild frontier of sorts in music. Rather than struggling to break into radio, musicians can find a mass audience without a major record deal. These technologies are fostering the rise of “semiotic democracy”—where more and more people are no longer passive consumers of mass media, but active participants in creating culture.

The music industry is part of a waning guard, and it fears it will be eclipsed by this new landscape. But the industry refuses to simply take a bow, or even roll with these changes. Instead, it has released the hounds of law onto the backbone of semiotic democracy: the internet.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is currently policing digital networks that distribute copyrighted material for free; and it is dead serious. It went after a deceased woman for downloading songs in her twilight years. The RIAA also has a case before the Supreme Court in an attempt to quash peer-to-peer networks. Just like 9/11 paved the way for the PATRIOT Act to “adjust” civil liberties, the RIAA is enforcing copyright infringement to tame the new creative frontier.

Sadly, one of the heaviest influences on copyright law is the lobbying power of the “creative” industries. William Fisher III is a professor at Harvard Law School and a leading scholar of copyright law. He attributes some of the major changes in copyright to “concentrations of economic power.” The life of a copyright is a classic example. In 1998, the copyright for Mickey Mouse was about to expire, making the Disney icon public property. Dr. Fisher says “Disney would have lost a lot of licensing revenue if Mickey Mouse had fallen into the public domain. [So] Disney and many other organizations prevailed upon Congress to extend copyright” from 50 to 70 years.

The RIAA qualifies copyright in lofty terms. Their website states that “to artists, ‘copyright’ means the chance to hone their craft, experiment, create, and thrive. It is a vital right, and over the centuries artists have fought to preserve that right.” But now, in the 21st century, copyright can also encumber artists in their creative process. Putting together mixtapes or samples continues to be tricky for a number of reasons. Dr. Fisher gives two. He says “sampling is one of those zones where the power of a copyright owner gets in the way of successive layers of creativity.” Secondly, Fisher says, “there doesn’t exist a comprehensive copyright registry; so even if you’re perfectly willing to pay for permission to use other people’s works creatively, you can’t find the owner.” The result, according to Dr. Fisher, is that copyright law “is closing off an entire source of new works [and] depriving people of the creative experience.” So despite what the RIAA says, copyright and creativity have yet to shake hands.

But the current copyright regime fits neatly into their ongoing litigation against certain peer-to-peers. Mitch Bainwol, the RIAA’s chairman and CEO says free peer-to-peers follow a “parasitical business model” that “robs songwriters and recording artists of their livelihoods, stifles the careers of up-and-coming musicians, and threatens the jobs of tens of thousands of less celebrated people in the music industry.” And that argument holds a lot of water with many musicians, who believe that for art to have any continuity, artists should be compensated for their work.

But within the recording industry lie several common practices that are quite anti-artist. Work-for-hire and controlled composition clauses can snatch the cheese right from an artist’s mouth. Plus, the artist and the copyright owner are usually two different entities, and they are often at odds.

Copyright is never as simple as “once you create it, it’s all yours.” In any given recording, there are two copyrights: one for the song as it is composed by the artist(s), and another for the song as it is recorded. Many times, neither copyright is held by the artist, or at best he/she will hold a fraction of one, leaving the artist with little control over their own work. In 1998, Public Enemy posted free MP3s of their forthcoming remix Bring the Noise 2000 on their website. The recording label, PolyGram, had considerable share in the album, enough to sue PE and force them to remove their own songs from their official website. PolyGram’s copyright had been infringed.

In theory, the RIAA is right to stand up for the artist and the “thousands of less celebrated people in the industry.” But its legal crusade is as consoling to artists as a crying crocodile. After all, the recording industry is a business like any other; it will do everything in its power to sustain itself. It’s more likely that the industry’s fight on filesharing is about keeping its monopoly relevant than it is about stopping illegal downloading.

Instead of marching on the halls of high government and patrolling fledgling technologies, the recording industry can ensure its own relevancy by bringing justice into the music business. Espousing contracts that empower artists with more say over their legacies is a start. If the RIAA extols copyright as a guardian of creativity, they should develop an accessible database of copyrights to stimulate new forms of creativity. American culture has always been a product of the people. Now that technology and new media has caught up with the diversity of our voices, the industry should step back and listen.

Beni B

2005-05-02T15:23:00.000-07:00

Beni B
Pic by Matt Reamer.

By Jesse Ducker

Beni B came to the Bay Area with plans of getting a degree at UC Berkeley. He ended up creating ABB Records, a label that has helped spur the rise of the new independent hip-hop sound through the late 1990s and into the 21st Century.

Beni B, a Los Angeles native, moved to the Bay Area in 1983, just as hip-hop was heating up on the West Coast. “This is a time when Too Short was pioneering with his brand of street marketing,” Beni B said. “At the time, no one had an inkling that it would grow to what it’s become. It was just a way of life: get out there and hustle your tapes. We never had that whole entertainment industry here. So when artists put their music out, they just used a different approach.”

Though Beni says this Bay Area spirit of independence didn’t directly inspire him to create ABB Records, the label has certainly followed the same blueprint as many Bay Area pioneers: find your core audience and tailor the product to meet their needs. ABB Records began as a straight-up hip-hop vinyl label. When the first ABB 12” dropped in 1996, the general consensus was that vinyl was on its way out. Still, ABB has produced vinyl almost exclusively since its creation, releasing over 50 titles on wax to date.

And even though it’s based in the Bay Area, ABB has put out music originating from all over. Their roster includes artists like Dilated Peoples, Defari, the Sound Providers, and Joey Chavez (all from Los Angeles), Little Brother (South Carolina), Foreign Legion (San Jose), Superstar Quamallah and 427 (Oakland), Planet Asia (Fresno), Consequence (New York), Jay Dee and Frank N Dank (Detroit), and Arcee (Toronto). They’ve also expanded beyond hip-hop, even adding a few R&B artists for the ABB Soul off-shoot, including crooner Peven Everett.

Beni says ABB puts out whatever he’s feeling. “I just look for the potential, do I feel it, and can I work with it,” he says. “It’s like: your shit is hot or your shit is not hot.”

Beni B’s involvement with college radio sparked his desire to run a record label. In 1987, he started his first show on KALX, the radio station for UC Berkeley, and stayed rocking on the radio for the next decade. “I had always been into the music, and the involvement in the radio show was just an outgrowth of the music. My whole philosophy to doing my show was that I wanted to expose people to different music.”

Being a deejay also helped Beni learn the ins and outs of the music biz. Over the years he was able to track the career path of the average artist who came through to hype their shit. “I was seeing the big picture,” he said. “I would watch them come when they were little, come through and be big, then fall off and come through again.”

Beni said he first created ABB in order to help his fellow Cal graduate/homeboy MC Defari get his shit out there. Beni had known Defari for years; he co-hosted many of Beni’s shows at KALX. The two stayed cool even after Defari went to Columbia University for graduate school.

In 1997, after years of watching Defari put in work to get his music out there, Beni took matters in his own hands and pressed-up Defari’s first single “Bionic,” b/w “Change and Switch.”

Defari then told Beni that his producer, Evidence, also had his own group, Dilated Peoples, which was also struggling to get their record out. Beni B heard the material, and decided to release the Dilated’s single “Third Degree,” b/w “Confidence,” and “Global Dynamics.” The rest is history.

Beni has had the uncanny ability to put out records that become underground classics. Take ABB’s two most successful 12”s, “Work the Angles” and “Rework the Angles” by Dilated Peoples. Now, six years after releasing the records, Beni B still sends copies of the record to places as far away as Switzerland and South Korea. He’s lost track of how many different pressing he’s done of the records.

Both of ABB’s first artists have remained loyal to the label. Even though Dilated has released three CDs on Capitol Records, they still release all of their vinyl through ABB Records. Defari also remains tight with the label; he recently released an album as part of the Likwit Junkies (featuring him and DJ Babu) through ABB in March. So what is it about ABB that keep artists them coming back?

“We stand behind our artists,” Beni says. “We get in there and we’re not afraid to get our hands dirty. I’m not afraid to carry records in my bag and pass them out to people. And it gets to the point where we’re putting out better and better records. It may get to the point where we’re the premier label and distributor here on the West Coast.”

Beni also predicted great things when Little Brother’s tape came across his desk. Beni was so confident in the group that he chose their first album, The Listening, to begin ABB’s foray into CD distribution. Before, ABB had dealt exclusively in vinyl. It turned out to be a sound investment, as the album picked up a serious underground following and was soon being championed by the likes of Pete Rock and ?uestlove.

However, Beni said doing CDs was difficult at times. “CDs are a whole different market,” he said. “Really, it’s about your plan and how you go and turn over every stone and put that together. It’s the type of learning curve where you spend money to learn. So that can be hard. The music business is not very margin-friendly, so you can kind of screw yourself too. [Working with the Little Brother CD,] there were some things in hindsight we could have done differently, but [considering] where it’s going to end up, I’m not mad.”

Beni took what he learned and applied it the label’s next CD release, The Sound Providers’ An Evening With the Sound Providers. Beni sees big things for the production crew. “I think those guys have the potential to really, really do a whole lot,” he said. “This album, in less than a week, shipped 10,000 units.”

There’s a lot more on ABB’s plate. Beni signed Liz Fields, a Philly-born, Los Angeles-based singer to ABB Soul and Big Tone, a Detroit-based MC. Beni hopes they’ll all reach the same levels of fame attained by artists like Dilated, Defari, and Little Brother

Though Beni would eventually like to get back to his radio roots, he’s more than happy with the way things have gone for ABB. “I wouldn’t trade this for anything. Being able to watch groups like Little Brother, and see where they started and [where] they’re going to end up [is great]. To see their ability to touch people, that to me is worth more than anything.”

Peanut Butter Wolf

2005-05-02T13:57:00.000-07:00

Peanut Butter Wolf
Pic Courtesy of Stones Throw Records.

By Jesse Ducker

People might still think Peanut Butter Wolf is a strange nom-de-plume, but the producer/DJ/label owner has an undeniable wealth of knowledge of hip-hop and almost all forms of music. So it makes sense that he gets worldwide respect for his skills behind the boards, turntables, and the office desk.

The San Jose native has been into hip-hop from the start, and in the late 1990s, after years of doing acclaimed production work, left the samplers and the drum machines behind to focus on the business side of things. Close to a decade ago, he founded Stones Throw Records, which he runs with his potna, Egon. PB Wolf also regularly represents the label. He often tours with Stones Throw acts or by himself, journeying around the world and doing DJ sets.

Stones Throw is a unique independent hip-hop label. It has put out many hip-hop releases, such as Lootpack, Madvillain (Lootpack producer/rapper Madlib and MF Doom), Jaylib (Madlib and super-producer/rapper Jay-Dee), the acclaimed live-band The Breakestra, and albums by other rappers who are down with the Lootpack (Wildchild, Ohno, Quasimoto, etc.). Later in 2005, Stones Throw will drop an album by mid-1990s NY underground legend Percee P, likely to be produced entirely by Madlib. The common thread through all these releases (besides Madlib) is that they usually take a back-to-boom-bap approach to hip-hop, or they try some way-out, highly experimental shit, like Quasimoto or Madvillain. Releases by the latter two artists at times feel like acid-trips laid on wax.

However, there’s a whole other side to Stones Throw. PB Wolf has used the label to reissue material that he loves. This includes the album Now by obscure, unclassifiable band Stark Reality, The Third Unheard—a compilation of early 1980s hip-hop from Connecticut—and a slough of early 1990s 12”s from artists like Dooley O and Stezo. The label has also put out material beyond the realm of hip-hop, including abstract jazz albums by Yesterday’s New Quintet and Monk Hughes and the Outer Realm (actually Madlib recording under other names). He’s also released Mary Had Brown Hair, a new album by Gary Wilson, an obscure psych-rocker whose only previous release came out in 1977.

In late 2003, Stones Throw released Big Shots by PB Wolf and his best friend Charizma, who was tragically killed 10 years earlier. PB Wolf said he planned to release the album, but needed to wait until the right time. Both PB Wolf’s beats and Charizma’s rhymes have stood the test of time.

Stones Throw has excelled through releasing their brand of hip-hop and music. While some indie “can’t miss” powerhouses like Rawkus have folded, Stones Throw is still going strong. In fact, to commemorate their 101st release, they dropped a Stones Throw 101, which features a DVD of all the videos by artists on the label and a mix CD with PB Wolf himself on the turntables. PB Wolf and Stones Throw have even more fly shit on deck, including a release from Canada’s Koushik, the long-awaited solo album by New York’s Percee P, and a new Quasimoto album, all set to drop shortly.

SHOUT: When did you decide you wanted to run a record label?
PB Wolf: Even when I was producing, I knew I wanted to eventually start my own label. This was true even back when Charizma and I were looking to get a deal. I’ve always been interested in the promotional aspect of things. When I produced for small record labels, I always worked to make sure the local radio stations and stores had the record. I also went to San Jose State University, where I got a degree in marketing with a minor in advertising. So I’ve always been interested in the business-side of things.

After shopping your demo, you and Charizma eventually signed to Hollywood Basic, which, at the time, was owned by Disney. Of course, now the label no longer exists. Did you guys ever consider signing to an independent label?
We wanted to go with an indie label. A major indie like Jive Records or Tommy Boy. This was before Jive was putting out records by people like the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. But in the end we went with Hollywood Basic, because they came to us with the best offer. You can try your hardest to get with the labels that you’re interested in, but in the end it’s always best to go with someone who wants to work with you.

But did you have problems with the label regarding the album you and Charizma recorded?
Our music was one way, and people from the label wanted to change it into something else; something more pop. And we didn’t like it. Back then, we were young and felt like we were on top of the world, so we weren’t the most friendly with the label. They wanted us to do stuff like get a lot of outside producers to do remix work. We wanted to do things on our own. And Charizma and I grew up idolizing groups like Gang Starr and Pete Rock & CL Smooth, who did everything by themselves.

Do you miss producing?
I definitely don’t miss producing. That was a different time for me. Now I’m running the label full-time and doing DJ gigs. Hip-hop has changed so much since I was producing.

How so?
Well, to tell you the truth, it’s a little boring to me. I don’t like sounding like the old, bitter cat, but that’s how I feel. I’m really not feeling a lot of the hip-hop out right now. The music industry has been suffering lately, and to tell the truth, there’s very little new music that I like.

But a lot of the stuff that comes out on Stones Throw is hip-hop.
Of course. I still love hip-hop. The Jaylib and Madvillain albums have come out, and we’ve put out albums by Ohno, who’s down with Madlib and the Lootpack, and we’re going to put out Percee Pee. Basically, Stones Throw puts out whatever I like. We’ve put out a new album by Gary Wilson, who put out a psychedelic rock album in the ’70s. I don’t know if the average hip-hop fan is going to feel it, but a lot of my favorite records that we’ve put out people haven’t felt. For example, the Captain Funkaho 45 is one my favorite releases on Stones Throw, but most people don’t understand it.

When you first started the label, did you ever think you’d get to the point where you’d put out 101 releases?
I never gave it much thought. I’m happy that we made it, but I’ve always done it day by day. Nothing has been calculated. I’m glad I’ve been able to put out so many releases in so many different genres, but it’s all been rooted in hip-hop.

Is there anything you learned about running your own label through your experiences with Hollywood Basic?
I’ve learned to work with the artists to make sure that they’re satisfied with the way things are handled. I want them to be fully happy with their albums. I’m pretty hands-off in the whole process.
The only thing I ever have disagreements with the artists about is how long the album should be. A lot of times the artists want the full 74 minutes, and I think you should be able to get your point across in 60 minutes. So sometimes I ask them to get back and try to trim it down to an hour. The Madvillain album was 45 minutes, which was probably the perfect length for the album. There were a lot of songs, but they were all pretty short. The Lootpack album, one of the first full-lengths, was really long. We had to press it up on triple vinyl. And triple vinyl seems a little ridiculous. My Vinyl Weighs a Ton—my album on Stones Throw—was also triple vinyl. Yeah, I should have probably gone back and edited it down.

So are you concerned with selling records? Some of the stuff on Stones Throw, like the Stark Reality reissue, isn’t very accessible.
I’m only really concerned for the artists’ sake. I don’t want to feel like I’ve let people down. We do all of the stuff that other labels do. We get out on the road and promote the records. We’ve got street teams. We do videos. You might not see them on MTV, but we do them. In fact, when we first posted the video for Madvillain’s “All Caps” on our website, we had to take it down because it got too many hits. Our host said they couldn’t handle the traffic.
I only work with the artists I trust. But I’m really picky. A lot of times artists are scared to give me stuff, because they know how picky I am. I’m one of the pickiest people in the business. I won’t put a record out unless I love it. But we do we put out an album a month each year. I really do take this seriously.

With records like the Stark Reality record and the Funky 16 Corners album, Stones Throw is becoming well known for its reissues. Was it always the aim of the label to do reissues? What made you decide to do it?
It was always something I wanted to do, but I didn’t know how to do it. When I met Egon, he was working for a radio show that would track down and interview old-school acts. That’s how the Funky 16 Corners compilation came about. Egon had known a lot of these artists through the radio show. Plus, the success of the Breakestra album made us feel like we could put out an album like that and it would be accepted by the “keep-it-real” hip-hop fan.
So Egon had original copies of the 45s, and we put them together and came out with the album. It was almost like a new release, to some extent, because a lot of these 45s were very limited local press-ups in the South and the Midwest, so they never made it to places like New York or California. They only had runs of like 1,000 copies, so like 99.9% of the population had never heard it before. That’s why the majority of these artists are receptive to us when we contact them and ask them if we can reissue their material. It gives them a second chance to be heard. A lot of their stuff was never heard before.

You get out there more than some people who run record labels these days. Not every label owner goes out on tour and performs with the rest of the artists. What made you decide to tour and deejay so much?
Well, I’m a deejay first, so I like going out there and doing that. But it actually works out well for the label. I can go out there and meet the people who run the stores and nightclubs. There’s also Egon, who works as the label manager and runs the label while I’m away.

What are you feeling these days?
Actually, I’m feeling a lot of the southern bounce music, like Lil Jon and Lil Flip. I’m still a fan of music. I still buy a lot of old stuff. I’ve got most of the hip-hop. A lot of the hip-hop I dig for is the independent gangsta rap stuff that came out in the 1990s after NWA. Like from all over the country. I buy a lot of old house records, a lot of dancehall. You can never have everything, there’s always going to be more to dig for.

A Brief Future of Hip-Hop Part 2

2005-05-02T13:20:00.000-07:00

By Andrew Strawder
Continued from PART ONE

Mac Dre's Memorial Mural by Hyde & Gigs

2005-05-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

Destruction gives way to creativity once again...

Mac-Dre, Pic by Elissa Curtis.

Langton & Harrison, SF

MacDre-whole, Pic by Elissa Curtis.

MacDre-whole2, Pic by Elissa Curtis.

The SHOUTCAST is on baby!

2005-04-24T11:29:00.000-07:00

2005-04-21T11:33:00.000-07:00

VOLUME ONE PLAYLIST:
1. "Piano Sample" DJ Platurn
2. "Frogs" Alpha Zeta (MC Azeem/DJ Zeph)
3. "Balance" Crown City Rockers f. Scarub
4. "Rocksteady" Co-Deez
5. "Bird's Eye View" Zion I
6. "No More Dating Deejays" Dj Sake One
7. "Interlude" Lunar Heights
8. "Things Change" Nebulus
9. "Run the Line" Peanut Butter Wolf f. Rasco & QBert
10. "People Like Me" Joyo Velarde
11. "Rubber Glue" Alpha Zeta (MC Azeem/DJ Zeph)
12. "Half & Half" Lunar Heights
13. "Declaration" Bucc Rogers
14. "Rain Makes it Perfect" The Dime
15. "The Final Round" Co-Deez

Contact Information:

2005-04-08T23:05:00.000-07:00

EMAIL:
Editor: editor@shoutbayarea.com
Advertising: mike@shoutbayarea.com

MAILING ADDRESS:
Shout Productions Inc.
2215R Market Suite 447
San Francisco, CA 94117

Shout is always looking for writers, photographers, artists and musicians.
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2005-01-01T10:24:00.000-08:00

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Tajai by Andrew Strawder

2004-12-03T19:00:00.005-08:00

Tajai

By Andrew Strawder

Mixmaster Mike by Andrew Strawder

2004-12-03T19:00:00.004-08:00

MixmasterMike, Illustration by Andrew Strawder.

Untitled Nude By Erin Crawford

2004-12-03T19:00:00.003-08:00

Untitled Nude

Trojan Horse by Andrew Strawder

2004-12-03T19:00:00.002-08:00

Trojan Horse

Untitled By Nate1

2004-12-03T19:00:00.001-08:00

Untitled

Check Nate's other stuff at www.nate1design.com

Your Vote Counts By Granger Davis

2004-12-03T19:00:00.000-08:00

Your Vote Counts

Lost City of Letters by the UN Crew

2004-12-03T18:00:00.000-08:00

Satyr, Crayone, Nate1
5th & Harrison, SF

Cops vs Lawyers: SF DA Kamala Harris

2004-10-10T23:00:00.001-07:00

Image by Granger Davis. Interview by Mike Conway.

Kamala Harris is San Francisco’s first female DA, and California’s first African American woman to hold the office.

On April 10, 2004, police officer Isaac Espinoza was killed in the line of duty in San Francisco. When a suspect was brought to court, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris refused on principle to pursue the death penalty. Police officers across the country were outraged.

Several news media and alternative publications insist that this dispute has struck a gaping rift between the respective offices between the DA and the police. This rift only seemed to widen into other areas of law enforcement such as prostitution, where the DA’s office is working to change the police’s approach.

SHOUT: Explain your position on prosecuting the murder of Officer Espinoza.
District Attorney Kamala Harris: I am outraged by the cold-blooded murder of 29-year-old Officer Isaac Espinoza. He was a dedicated young police officer who voluntarily put himself in danger to protect the innocent. I must admit that I, too, felt an immediate desire for revenge. I have been a member of law enforcement for my entire career, and so I take personally the outrageousness of violence against a police officer. Wanting an eye for an eye is also one of the oldest and most natural of emotions. But as one of America’s greatest teachers, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said, “the old eye for an eye philosophy leaves everyone blind.”
The district attorney is charged with seeking justice, not vengeance. From my career in law enforcement and the law, it is clear to me that the death penalty is deeply flawed. [Instead] I have charged this case as a special circumstance homicide, which automatically carries a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole. And, let’s be clear about that sentence: It means exactly what is says. People who receive this sentence will never see the light of day again.

How will you work with the police going forward?
KH: The police are like anybody else: they want to know what’s going to happen when they put in the long hours. If you have a bunch of police out working the streets, arresting people for certain crimes and then the DA doesn’t charge those crimes, they’re going to be frustrated. It’s irresponsible to not deal with that dynamic. We’re giving clear guidelines about what we will charge, and what we won’t charge, and in that way, everybody is on the same page.

Lessons learned about media relations from the Espinoza murder case:
KH: The media and the public has been conditioned to respond to bells and whistles—there’s a lot of guns and violence, and that’s what sells.

How ar you different from former DA Terrence Hallinan?
KH: I like to think of it not just as differences between me and my former opponent, but also as a new era and a new direction based on the current issues and problems to be solved.
For example, I’m thinking a lot about what we are doing about quality of life crimes—what can we do to have a drug policy that is appropriately strict when we’re seeing repeated sales of drugs, but at the same time, [a policy] that is appropriately compassionate when we’re talking about things like Medical Marijuana. I don’t see these things as being mutually exclusive; I don’t think we have to talk about the criminal justice system in a way that being compassionate means being soft on crime.
I came to the office and we had a backlog of 74 homicide cases, some as old as four years, and in my first six months in office, we were able to put a dent in that backlog and reduce that number by 36%. Within six months, we tried as many cases as we did all last year. It took making those cases a priority. I talked with judges and police letting them know we’re going full speed ahead on these cases, and everyone got on board. It was a welcome change. Anybody would admit there should be consequences when you commit a crime to harm someone. Those consequences should not be retaliation in the streets; it should be the consequences that result from the criminal justice system working, which means prosecutors working.

What is your stance on quality-of-life-crimes?
KH: With prostitution, consenting adults should be given certain latitude. [But] it’s a very complicated issue and I’m not prepared to say it should be legalized. When you talk about prostitution, there are many related issues: exploitation, violence and other crimes that surround prostitution. There is the issue of what prostitution does to a community. When it starts to harm individuals and communities, then something has to be done.
Kids are developing at a younger age; there are girls as young as 11 that are fully developed, but as soon as they open their mouths, you know they’re kids. I have instituted policies in this office basically to say that if an adult is having sex with a youth that is being prostituted, we can charge that person with child abuse. It’s literally changing the way we are looking at this issue.
I meet with Market Street merchants and families that live in the Tenderloin—and there are a lot of families that live there—and they can’t walk to the corner, their kids can’t walk to the park without being harassed by drug activity. So that concerns me. They have a right to live in a safe community. So I am taking quality-of-life offenses more seriously.

What’s one thing you’d like the Hip-Hop Community to understand about your organization?
KH: The point of my work is to not only ensure consequences to crimes, but also to protect the most vulnerable people in the community. And often, the people who are most vulnerable may also be people that aren’t the poster-child for sympathy. But that doesn’t mean I buy into that version of who we should care about. I’m prepared to go after people who victimize others which may live a lifestyle that is disliked by society at large.
One of the things that makes populations vulnerable to crime is if they don’t trust law enforcement and if they don’t have the means to communicate with law enforcement. That is just a fact. So the way we have to deal with that is to be present in these communities and to speak to them in their language and also recognize the experience they have traditionally had with law enforcement.
If someone is beating up or kills your brother, shouldn’t you be standing up? Shouldn’t you be saying, “he did it.” We have to dispel the perspective that whoever cooperates with law enforcement must be a snitch. That’s ridiculous. Can you imagine if everyone would come forward? I cannot as a DA charge somebody with the crime of murder without any evidence.

Issue Two

2004-10-10T23:00:00.000-07:00

Issue Two Cover, Cover Photo by Bayeté Ross-Smith.

Cops vs Lawyers: SF Police Officers Association Pres. Gary Delagnes

2004-10-10T22:03:00.000-07:00

Image by Granger Davis

By Mike Conway

On April 10, 2004, police officer Isaac Espinoza was killed in the line of duty in San Francisco. When a suspect was brought to court, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris refused on principle to pursue the death penalty. Police officers across the country were outraged, and no cop was more vocally opposed to her decision than Inspector Gary Delagnes, president of San Francisco’s Police Officers Association. Inspector Delagnes joined the police force in 1978, & was a narcotics officer for over 12 years.

SHOUT: Inspector Delagnes, explain your position on prosecuting the murder of Officer Espinoza.
INSPECTOR DELAGNES: 'It is our belief that when you kill a cop, it’s the same as killing a politician or anyone that represents the community and works to keep that community safer. We feel when someone like that is murdered, it goes beyond a normal crime. Especially due to the fact that we’re dealing with more and more dangerous criminals that all seem to have assault weapons. A message needed to be sent that if you kill a cop, you face the ultimate penalty.
'We understand that Kamala Harris is against the death penalty, but we felt this was so extraordinary that she needed to reverse herself. We’re moving on, though. At one point we tried to get the Attorney General on the case, that didn’t happen. The DA is going to proceed, she did not take the death penalty and we just got to live with that, and we also understand that we have to live in concert with the DA and we have to work together on a lot of different issues and we have to get to work. We can’t exist as enemies.'

How is Kamala Harris different from former DA Terrence Hallinan?
'I would characterize the Hallinan tenure as a bad joke. He obviously didn’t understand–in my opinion—the role of the DA, what a DA does. No matter how liberal you are, no matter if you’ve been a defense attorney your whole life, once you become a DA, your job is to prosecute criminals. I don’t think he ever grapsed that.
'I worked narcotics before I took this job, and here’s the point the cops are trying to make: if you don’t want to prosecute quality-of-life crimes, then you get what you pay for. You have street dealing of heroin, crack, meth-amphetamines, or for that matter marijuana going on up and down Market (mostly by people from the East Bay). So when the tourist from Iowa, Arkansas, or Texas comes to San Francisco and sees this and asks “why is it such a mess here?” don’t expect people to come back here for vacation. That’s what we’re hearing more and more—”this city is a mess; we’re not coming back.” So what happens? The economy goes bad, hotel tax and tax revenues go down.
'If you talk to politicians from New York, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, they made a concerted effort to be aggressive on quality of life crimes. If you want people to visit our city and feel safe, you’d better do something about things like drug sales and aggressive panhandling. That’s not to say we throw offenders away in prison for ten years.'

How will you work with the DA's office going forward?
'Despite what occurred on the death penalty issue, we’ve always maintained that Ms. Harris is a career prosecutor that understands what needs to be done as a prosecutor. Is the philosophy gonna change in regards to quality of life crimes? I don’t know; it’s still early. We’re in a wait-and-see mode, but it’s gonna take time to change an inherent philosophy that’s occurred eight years under Terrance Hallinan.'

Lessons learned about media relations from the Espinoza murder case:
'I don’t give interviews to the Bay Guardian because what are they possibly gonna say that will make my people look good?'

What is your stance on quality-of-life-crimes?
'San Francisco finds itself in these tough situations because they wanna be liberal, they wanna boast about their liberal views politically. So when a situation comes up—that is homelessness, prostitution—they don’t really know what to do.
'If people don’t mind somone walking into the New Century Theater, or Mitchell Brothers, and paying money to sit in a booth, you know what? We don’t care, but then don’t have a vice crimes division. Because the vice division gets complaints, and we’re supposed to go out and investigate those complaints.
'The vice unit would never go into these places unsolicited. The people we get complaints from are usually tourists that go in for a show; they don’t understand what’s going on and the next thing you know, they get propositioned for sex in a booth and they get offended. And before the guy leaves town back to Iowa, he calls the cops and we have to respond.
'I’m in the personal belief that prostitution should be legalized and controlled. I think marijuana should be legalized. If it’s sold in a controlled setting, like sex, these are victimless crimes. If someone wants to go smoke a bunch of doobs, that’s [their] business. If you’re gonna legalize alcohol, I don’t see why you can’t legalize marijuana.'

What’s one thing you’d like the Hip-Hop Community to understand about your organization?
'The community needs to understand that the police department is on their side. We’re not in there to racially profile or abuse people. We’re there to give people the opportunity for a law-abiding, peaceful life. Having said that...
'Police work is a contact sport. If you see a cop in an altercation, it doesn’t mean the cop’s beating the person up. There’s fights, there’s physical contact, there’s people that go down. When that happens, it doesn’t mean the cop is being brutal.
'Our officers are governed by the Office of Citizen Complaints, and when people make complaints about excessive force or any other unwarranted action, they are investigated and reviewed by the OCC. The OCC takes in about 1,000 complaints a year, and they’re only able to sustain 60 of those one thousand. Most sustained complaints involve things like inappropriate language or attitude. Incidents of excessive force against a citizen are extremely, extremely rare. In 15-20 years there’s been no shooting by one of our officers that was deemed unlawful or illegal by the courts or by the OCC. It doesn’t happen.
'Until there’s an understanding in a community that we’re there to help, then what are we doing there?'

Sisterz of the Underground

2004-10-10T22:00:00.005-07:00

Pic By Mischief Media.

By Miz P

Right now, the California public school system is in chaos. The funding of city schools in particular are infamously under-funded. As a result, after-school activities like sports and art programs at these institutions have taken a major hit. That's where the Sisters of the Underground (SOTU) have stepped up to battle the decline in creative outlets for Bay Area kids.

As the morning fog burns off and rays of sun scratch through, a group of children, accompanied by two youthful counselors, board a MUNI bus from within Presidio to the depths of the Mission District. The bus comes to a grinding halt and the posse scuddles out towards the wide-open doors of the Cellspace: a bombed-up community center that sticks out like a sore thumb compared to its dulled brick and industrial metal neighbors.

What kind of activity would draw a group of young kids from Presidio to a tagged-up warehouse deep in the Mission? Simple: this is but one of the many workshops taught by the Sisterz of the Underground. By grooving to both old- and new-school jams, four hours every day for the next five days, this novice group of eager young students will be introduced to the world of breakdancing.

While sitting cross-legged, gathered in a school circle on the cold warehouse floor, a petite woman appears from around the corner; it’s their first glimpse of the instructor; she’s rocking baggy sweat pants, a pair of well-worn Adidas, and a fresh do-rag fitted to her dome. She introduces herself with a warm smile as Sarah; but at 5’ tall, she encourages the class to address her by her b-girl name, “Smalls”...

The Sisterz of the Underground understand that after school, children are often left with little resort than to roaming the streets once the three o’clock bell rings. So the Sisterz reach out to these kids where the government and other agencies will not.

With a firm belief in hip-hop as a culture and an appreciation of how impressionable kids are, the collaborators at SOTU use the elements of hip-hop to impress kids and so teach the importance of love and compassion for others.

The teachers roster, which at one point consisted of only two instructors, has since flourished to over 17 eager and qualified heads who, come this fall, will jive into hundreds of Bay Area classrooms to teach kids the four main elements of hip-hop; Deejaying, Emceeing, Breaking, and Graffiti.

...In the traditional first-day-of-class fashion, Smalls gets to know her students. With faces from diverse backgrounds with names from Albert to Zoe, she finds out that the class is a mix of fourth- and fifth-grade boys and girls; half of them are there because their parents signed them up, a few because they’ve seen breaking on TV and want to improve on their techniques. The rest seem to twiddle their thumbs and pick their noses quietly with no real answer to the question. Whether the children are there by choice or by force is irrelevant, because Smalls and the other two instructors—Machine and Crykit—are extremely passionate about their art. With the class in their hands, even students barley-coordinated enough to fall to down will leave with a little b-boy or b-girl spark inside of them.

Like any class, Smalls has a structured lesson plan for the students over the next few days. Her plan emphasizes fundamentals such as proper stretching, some basic top-rock moves, smooth transitions, and solid footwork. Using what they learn, these mini b-boys and b-girls will duke it out in a friendly battle for the most ill crew at the end of the week...

The Sisterz of the Underground started years ago as a collective of female expressionists and has since grown to incorporate both men and women of the hip-hop culture, spanning from the west coast to Australia. Their roster of teachers began with only two instructors, and has since grown to over seventeen motivated and qualified heads. The instructors range from breakers such as the all-female Extra Credit Crew, to emcees from Bay Area crews like Felonius and Greans, and on to deejays like Megatron from the East Bay...

...During a brief breaking history lesson, Smalls informs her now wide-awake students that the dance form took off in the late 60’s, developed by New York street gangs as an alternative to violence. When asked if there is any specific move they hope to learn, a few of the boys anxiously squeal that they want to spin on their heads. Sarah then cranks the volume on the ghetto blaster; the room floods with intoxicating break-beats, igniting a wave of head bobbing. Then, she begins the class with these words of wisdom: “Before you can windmill, you must learn your baby freeze and backspin, and you’ve got to learn to stand on your head before you spin on your head...”

The idea for the Sisterz was spawned after a monumental show in January of 2001 at the Justice League (now the Independent). Los Angeles native and recognized hip-hop promoter Sarah Saltzman, aka Smalls, had just relocated to the Bay Area and, to show love for the local scene, she threw an event like no other; Smalls hoped her party would pose an especially inviting gesture towards women to take a more active roll within the hip-hop community. With a line-up consisting of all-female acts ranging from poets, emcees and breakers, she called the event ‘Sisterz of the Underground’. Her “gesture” was praised so highly by the audience and by local heads in general, that there arose a need for a greater and more powerful force; thus the Sisterz of the Underground was born as an organization. By 2002, Smalls had forged a bold collective with an ambitious mission...

...During the course of the week, the students are taught the importance of rhythm and exposed to a variety of classic breaking maneuvers; they learn how to utilize each move effectively in their routines—using transitions like sleepers appropriately and maintaining proper footwork at all times. The kids grow familiar with breaking and its battle environment through the execution of creative exercises—like "B-R-E-A-K," a b-boy version of the basketball classic "H-O-R-S-E," and "Duck, Duck, Battle!," a modified version of the playground favorite "Duck, Duck, Goose!," where the “goose” must partake in a two-round b-boy/b-girl battle.

Although an obvious class objective is to give the children a greater knowledge of breaking, the instructors under SOTU emphasize far greater values: they advocate “battle skills” as a form of conflict resolution, just as the original breakers did—by imparting positive, more-conscientious forms of interaction and showing no tolerance for negativity or disrespect.

On the last day of class, before Smalls has even stepped foot in the classroom, half of the students are sporting do-rags—not for fashion, but for friction; one girl’s strapped with knee pads, and if there were anymore coffee grinders going on you’d think you were in Peet’s. The kids close with their battle partners and squeeze in a few last seconds of practice before the rounds kick off.

Once they’ve assembled in their school circle, Smalls drops the beat and a pair of b-girls under the alias The Breakettes comes with quick indian stepping, sleepers galore, head bobbing, and an in-your-face attitude. The girls’ opponents are two boys who call themselves Fantastic Elastic and are, for the most part, greatly lacking rhythm, but can baby freeze like there’s no tomorrow. The next few crews dance it off and the battle comes to a cordial close, with no declared winner, in the spirit of equality.

Unique workshops such as these continue to build support for the Sisterz of the Underground in the Bay Area and beyond. Those involved show no sign of slowing and strive towards one day constructing a Sisterz of the Underground community center as a safe haven for children to learn and practice the elements of hip-hop. SOTU always has several other projects in the works as well. This coming year is slated to be one of the most productive with solidified workshops with Mission Urban Arts, a twelve week program consisting of twelve weeks of deejay and breaking lessons, a choreography program at KITP Bayview Academy, and even a fourth-period class at a local high school.

Be sure to look out for an upcoming compilation the Sisterz have set for release soon through Outta Nowhere Entertainment entitled Queendom, featuring original tracks from immidiate members of the collective such as Neb Luv and heavyweights like Bahamadia, Apani B Fly, and the Concious Daughters. With soul and intensity, the Sisterz of the Underground will continue to deliver a message of equality, love, and positivity for as long as there are those who truly believe in the power of hip-hop.

Joyo Velarde

2004-10-10T22:00:00.004-07:00

Joyo Velarde
Pic by Matt Reamer.

By Mike Conway

Joyo Velarde could have been anything she wanted. At UC Davis, she pondered being a TV journalist. But after an internship with NBC, she found the corporate culture of television too shallow and fickle. But Joy’s true calling was not to find her at college; it had been with her long before.

We enter life with very little, we leave with even less. Though naked, we are born with a certain something to help us along the path bestowed on us. That something is how we communicate destiny to the world; discovering it and using it is our highest purpose.

Joyo Velarde was destined to sing. She has developed her voice since childhood. As a junior in college, Joy was very much in a shell. She was disillusioned with her academic path in journalism, perhaps a little bit shy, and not entirely confident with her singing voice.

At the same time, however, she had a relationship with this guy named Tom Shimura. Captivated by her voice, Tom urged her to make something of it. She took his advice and formally studied singing at Davis and San Jose State. The San Jo’ program eventually landed her a role in a world famous opera, where she performed live, onstage in Rome, Italy as the sultry Gianetta, a supporting role in Gaetano Donizetti’s L’elisir D’amore (The Elixir of Love).

Now, Joyo Velarde’s voice is heard by millions and it’s clear to her it was all meant to be. “In my growth as a person,” Joy says, “it’s definitely solidified in me that there’s a reason for everything.” Tom became known as Lyrics Born. The relationship they shared was true love and became marriage. And together their talents became a fluid union between a baritone emcee and a soprano songstress.

In 1996, Joyo sang back up to Lyrics Born on the underground hit “Balcony Beach”. The song flows like a scene in an opera. Our hero Lyrics Born lays on the railing of a oceanside balcony, musing on life in general and preparing a soliloquy. But first, Joy croons in from across water; her tone surges in with each wave, like she is the sea itself echoing about how she moves the sand with her tides.

Cut to 2003: LB releases his debut solo effort Later That Day, off Quannum Projects. The album has since exploded beyond expectation, and Joy plays a major role in that success. She sings back-up on several tracks, including “Love Me So Bad” which still rides atop the charts on major radio stations like LIVE 105.

Joy says her vocals have a distinct purpose when backing up Lyrics Born. “When we write together, [we] just try to make sure that both sides are represented, that we both represent the characters that we wanted.” She’s not your typical songstress that unconditionally validates a male emcee. Joy is an independent, balancing perspective; her presence in the mix adds a voice of reason with her own prerogatives while her partner lyrically navigates the tensions and tribulations of a man on a mission.

From a well-studied, classical voice across to the Mary J. Blige school of deep soul, Joy’s signing covers a range the size of Mongolia. It’s no surprise then that some of the tracks from Later on which she appears have emerged from the underground and into the mainstream. In the taxi-flick Collateral, Jamie Fox listens to “Love Me So Bad” in his cab. You can hear Joy along with Constance Lopez in a Diet Coke commercial that plays a couple bars of “Callin Out”.

Some longtime fans are taken aback by this commercial success. After all, Joyo Velarde and her Quannum cronies are some of underground hip-hop’s greatest treasures, and hell-no do we want pop culture hijacking our jewels. Still, Joy aint trippin. The important things in her life—inspirations like family and friends—remain true despite any commercial success. “The fam thing never changes,” she confides, “People hear our songs on commercials and think everything that comes with that is in place as well, but it’s not. If our music can get through to other people, what’s wrong with succeeding at that?” Indeed, people in far-away suburbs are now receiving small doses of high-quality hip-hop, albeit through the medium of slap-happy soda ads.

But Joy and her crew don’t go into recording studios to think up jingles for Coca Cola, but to make music as they always have. “It should always be about doing the next project. I don’t think anyone should get complacent.”

That next project for Ms. Velarde is her very own solo album. “We’ve been chipping away at it for about four to five years,” says Joy. That time-span served as a lesson in patience as she waited until things were just right for the project. “I’m definitely more confident with the way my voice is now,” she says, “I know the kind of instrument I have to offer.” Lyrics Born will produce most of the material (as he did on Later) and manage all the A&R (Artist & Repertoire) aspects.

She classifies her solo effort roughly as a soul record, though not in the traditional sense of the soul genre. Joy modestly asserts that her voice is not a typical instrument of the neo-soul variety; still, the solo focuses on one of soul’s greatest topics: “Love and everything that accompanies love.”

When asked if she has any sad love songs, Joy scrolls through her mental catalog of lyrics and comes upon one song about the father/daughter dynamic. “That’s the blueprint for the relationships you have [with men] for the rest of your life.” Joy explains that when a father is not there substantially or flat-out abandons his daughter, often times a girl grows up thinking “Okay, fuck it. All the men in my life are gonna leave me, so why should I give you my heart?”

Joy is also pondering some political topics as well, but no matter what the topic that she writes and sings about, Joy is somewhat self-effacing about her music. “I don’t believe it’s us making it. I believe it’s God, it’s the universe using us as voices, instruments, emcees, producers, to get some message out there.”

The instrument of Joy is not so much a talent as it is a gift. One gift of the many bestowed uniquely on us all. For Joyo Velarde, it’s not a question of what that gift is, “but the journey of trying to figure out where we can take that gift.”

Joyo’s journey to this point is thus a familiar one. Just when she was disillusioned and uncertain, other people and forces were conspiring to brighten her future. Her future—hell, the future of us all is made in the present; because it is in that moment alone that we all play together as instruments of destiny.

Michael Franti Tours Iraq

2004-10-10T22:00:00.003-07:00

franti&soldiers, originally uploaded by smallaxe.

As told to Charlie Russo by Michael Franti

Shortly after interviewing him for our first issue, Michael Franti embarked on a trip to the Middle East to get a first hand street-level view of the war in Iraq. Traveling with a small team of filmmakers, Franti played music for Iraqi citizens and U.S. soldiers alike, creating a short documentary along the way chronicling his interactions with those involved in the current conflict.
The resulting film is titled Habibi, a word meaning “sweetheart” in Arabic, and doubling as the name of a song that Franti composed during his travels. Although the film’s completion date is set for the end of the year, Franti took some time to speak with us about his travels and reflect on his time in the war zone...

I had grown tired of hearing about this war through generals and politicians who never take the time to talk about the human cost of the war, and I wanted to talk with the poets and the writers and the taxi drivers and the kids....to hear about their experiences.It was really intense. From the moment you get there you feel the adrenalin and the stress of people that are living in fear and basically never feel safe at any time during the day.... and you quickly become one of those people.

We flew in on a twin-engine plane, and you get over the city of Baghdad and the pilot bends the plane and then does a nosedive-spiral down to the airport. The reason for this type of landing is to avoid shoulder-fired Sans-7 surface-to-air missiles. The Sans-7 is a heat-seeking missile, so it can make an arc back to where you are, but if you’re spinning it can’t find you.

In the daytime, it’s just so crowded on the streets that it’s just impossible for anyone other than a really experienced driver to maneuver around, because so many places have been bombed, and so much traffic has been stopped. At nighttime, actually around sunset, everyone goes back into their house. There are no basics like water in their homes. The electricity only works occasionally for a few hours at a time, and then goes back off again. No one has a job, there is 90% unemployment, and everyone has a gun. People just openly carry guns down the street. Everyone goes inside at 3 or 4pm and then you start hearing gunfire and mortar fire.

We had a lot of interactions. A lot of times I would just chill out on a street corner somewhere and play, or go to a restaurant and have a meal and then play. We would go to the hospital and ask if we could come in and play for the kids. Everywhere we went we were really well-received and as soon as I would start to play some people would come around and just clap. There is really just no music there at all; especially from a foreigner... especially an American foreigner.

We were staying real close to the Sheraton Hotel...which is filled with journalists and U.S. soldiers. There was a little catina were they would all go on their time off, and I played for about 40 soldiers. Well... when I sang the song “Bomb the World”, which goes, “you can bomb the world to pieces but you can’t bomb it into peace.” I was never more afraid in my life...playing in front of 40 soldiers who were holding an M-16 in one hand and a beer in the other. But afterwards they all came up to me and we all talked, and there were two or three of them who said, “I support the war. I’m a patriot. I support our Commander in Chief.” Then about half of them said, “I really wish we would have gone to the U.N. before we came here. I supported the war before I got here and now I don’t see what the point is.” And the rest were like “Fuck this place. Fuck this war. Fuck George Bush.” But every single one of them, more than anything, said that they wanted to go home, and that they felt like sitting ducks. There are about 142,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. In Baghdad alone, they have 4.5 million people.

When the troops first came, they were trying to win a military victory... and they succeeded; they overthrew the government. But now the war is to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi citizens. But having Abu Gharib, handpicked leaders, no elections, having a lot of civilians that were killed and no water, no electricity and no jobs... you’re not gonna win over the hearts and minds holding an M-16 in your hand, and the troops are aware of that. I talked to some people in the military who were pretty high up the chain of command, who told me that they couldn’t withdraw without first having hundreds of thousands of more troops there. It would be too much of a danger to just withdraw.

So I believe that we’re going to see more and more of the same. As time wears on the situation is gonna become worse both here—in terms of how much were paying for the war, and in Iraq—how much the people are suffering. Eventually the fighting is gonna build up to a point where it is creating almost a civil war situation. They’re gonna have to manage the country and give the Sunnis one part, and the Kurds another part, and the Shiites another part. That’s just my prediction, because I can’t see how America is gonna allow a Shiite government to run that nation. And I dont see how the people of that nation are gonna stand for being constantly shot at.

One final positive thing is that whether it was playing music for the troops or the kids with no legs, or the people on the street, it didn’t matter what the words to the songs were or what the melody of the song was. What was important was that we felt like we were all together in song. And I think that is why God gave us music.

Kat Ouano: The Keys of Crown City

2004-10-10T22:00:00.002-07:00

Kat Ouano
Pic by Matt Reamer. Fashion by Nicacelly.

-By Jeremy Tanner

Before I met Kat Ouano I would never have guessed that there were young boys and girls in Kansas playing classical piano competitively. Not for the love, not for their parents, but for the judges. Kat knows all about it because she was one of those youngsters. Recently I went to the Elbo Room in the Mission and watched Kat burn up the keys for the Crown City Rockers.
The Elbo Room was packed like a rush hour Muni, sweat droplets were condensing on the ceiling, people bobbed and nodded frenetically to the beat—and then Kat played her solo. With the rest of Crown City behind the curtains, the crowd’s energy fell upon Kat like a camera lens coming into focus. She wound hip-hop around classical music like audio braids. This is how Kat orchestrates when she plays—she started by giving judges goose bumps in Kansas, but now she spends her time in the Bay Area teaching people how to dance at hip-hop shows.

What time does your best work happen?
At night, when there’s no real distractions and you can be awake without bothering anybody and without being bothered. I’m a night owl, that’s why I can’t stick to any real job because then your life becomes centered around this fixed schedule. You can’t go outside of that boundary because then the next day you won’t be able to function.
If you make music while you’re exhausted your music will be exhausted, monotonous. You get the same tone in everything and you’re thinking why is it so dull? Maybe because you’re starting it at 4 o’clock in the morning(laughs)! They’ve always said a true musician has a day job, you’ve seen those bumper stickers, but it’s like, you know, it’s got to be a balance of being a true artist and knowing where you’re going if you want to live well.

I guess it’s the romantic ideal.
Yeah, I love the romantic ideals. It makes life worth living instead of just working for somebody else … If I go a couple of days without making any kind of music, not playing, not making a beat or not hanging out with the guys and just talking about shit, I’ll just turn into a weird-ass weirdo that’s mean and grumpy and doesn’t want to make a decision, and I have to ask myself what’s going on? Then we’ll get together and have a rehearsal and I’ll think, “oh yeah, this is what I need to be doing all the time!” But then there’s those devils in there, like, “Here, we’ll pimp you, take a job and we’ll give you all this money!”

Just so that people know a bit more about the history of Crown City Rockers, how did you guys originally find each other?
We started out as Mission. We actually all met in Boston because me, Max (Max MacVeety) and Headnodic (Ethan), all met at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Headnod knew Moe Pope from the streets and then me, Headnod and Moe moved in together. Moe knew Raashan (Raashan Ahmad) who had lived out in Boston before and was convincing Raashan to move back out to Boston from Pasadena. Raashan knew Woodstock from Pasadena and Raashan convinced Woodstock to move out to Boston, and that’s where we formed. That’s also where the name Mission came from because we were all living in Mission Hill in Boston. And then we all moved out to California for a while and that’s when we released our first album, Mission One. Then the UK band Mission asked us to change our name.

How did you come around to that name?
Raashan and Woodstock are from Pasadena and Pasadena is the “crown city”, I guess it’s like the crown of the valley, and so that’s where Crown City came from. Rockers just sounded cool, it sounds like an old break-dancing crew, or like an old roller derby team (laughs).

So now that you’ve been out here for a while, how would you compare the two different hip-hop scenes?
Wow, they’re totally different, like in Boston everything is a hustle, you’re constantly moving and everything is constantly moving around you. It’s a different atmosphere. I don’t want to say grimy, but it’s more gritty and has a little bit of a rougher edge, whereas out here it’s all smoothed-out and more chill. You can kind of get lost in letting things happen, it’s more relaxing, but it still has that funk, that chill, party feel. But actually I haven’t been back to Boston in so long. It’s this fantastic idea in my head of how it used to be. That goes along with the spirit of being young, I want to go back now and get that hustle back (laughs)!

I’m curious to know how the process was of adapting your classical training to hip-hop music?
I guess there’s a direct correlation with performing in general. When I was playing classical music competitively in Kansas it was performing for the judge. It was to keep the judge totally focused and interested. It’s the same thing with a show, you have to keep the audience totally with you no matter where you’re at. If you’re really excited then they should be excited as well, if you’re really intense then they’re hanging on every note.
Performing in general is … theatrical. In classical music you can get a heart beating really fast depending on what you’re playing and how intense it is. With a hip-hop song it’s the same thing, you know? That song “It’s The” that I play, that’s a classical piece morphing into a hip-hop song. It’s the perfect marriage of those two. I’d be playing a Beethoven piece or something like that and just imagine a beat behind it because the tempo is there; it’s like a zone that you’re in.

So do you have a good sense of what the audience is feeling most of the time?
Totally, but it changes with every audience. Depending on the audience, it’s like a chameleon effect, you’re trying to feel what everyone is feeling so that you’re all in that same little bubble. Say one night your playing a show at a little bar, there’s maybe like five people there drinking beer or whatever. There’s not a huge stage, it’s just our amplifiers and a tiny PA, so we’ll just tone it down a little, make it a little more jazzy, free it up. We don’t have a real set list, we’ll experiment with them but it will be relaxed. Then the next night it’s a huge stage, a huge crowd, lights and everything. With more people you have to exaggerate your energy and really bang it out so that everyone can get a taste.

How do you decide where to place your notes in the songs?
It depends on the song. The process is that there is no process (laughs). We’ve tried everything—including trying to have a process—but that just gets thrown out the window. It can range from us just jamming, having a good session while Raashan is writing and bam, there’s the song. Or we’re jamming and somebody presses “record” during the session and we find one bit that works and we go off of that. Maybe we’ll move it around but that piece is what we build off. Or someone comes up with a beat that just sounds totally cool, like Woodstock made a beat one time and said, “Could you guys try to replay this and make it sound better?” There’s five people in the band so we have five filters for the music, and if one person says, nah, that’s not bumpin’; it needs something else, then it needs something else! And all of us are nit-picky as hell! That’s the quality control (laughs)!

Where do you see hip-hop going in the next few years?
Well, I see a lot of hip-hop bands coming up these days which I think is great because so many of the kids out there see hip hop as just being about a deejay and an emcee, which is definitely what it is, but they need to be exposed to more live musicians to really experience how music is created on an instrument rather than just samples.

So is that where you would steer hip-hop?
Hell yeah! I’m a musician! I would also make hip-hop shows more entertaining, If you’re going to go to a hip-hop show, it should give you something that you’ve never seen or felt before. Sometimes they’re just so boring and everybody there is angry (laughs). It’s like okay, maybe that’s the show in itself, maybe you just go to be all tough and everything, but I know you feel different (laughs)! Come on, show it!

Pam the Funkstress

2004-10-10T22:00:00.001-07:00

Pam the Funkstress
Pic by Matt Reamer.

By Bella Bakrania

The opportunity to go record shopping with Pam the Funkstress, the deejay for The Coup, was too good to pass up. I’ve seen her rock many parties, mix with her hands deftly racing, even mix with her chest!

Bella: What do you look for first when you get to a record shop?
Pam: I look for the old stuff. There’s nothing new that’s really catching my eye. But I like Lean Back, the new Black Rob, the new Mobb Deep, and the new Jadakiss.

How often do you check the stacks?
About 3-4 times a month. But there’s nothing really that I don’t already have. I buy more 12” and lay off the mix records. Sometimes I’ll get a mix record for a specific track I can’t get on a 12”, and it can be a good deal at 7 tracks for $10.99. But you can’t beat having the instrumentals.

What do you do once you get home with the records?
Everything’s in my garage. You know (she smiles wide and takes a fake puff on a fake joint) I smoke, pull the records out, start playing and get into it. Sometimes I mark them up, I only wanna keep the records I’m gonna play at least four times. I got a lot of records. But, a lot of my records got got.
Yeah. Me too, I’ve had records stolen at gigs, it’s painful.

Have you heard the new Roots?
Yeah it’s good.
Y’know, sometimes, I’m like, do I really want that? But then sometimes, when I’m in a club, I wanna hear it, so I get it. I am stingy on records. There are certain things I should buy, but if I don’t like it, I don’t wanna play it.

What’s one of those club requests you don’t like?
“Slow Motion For Me”. What crap. I hate that song. It’s garbage.

[She fires though the comp stacks and makes note of some more whack tunes, warning me.]
Like why did they do a love song on that hardcore Biggie beat? What were they thinking?

What’s your dj style all about?
When I play in clubs, I want people to dance. You can’t play slow stuff at midnight, but maybe at 9pm. Ooh – [pointing to “Hyphy”] you got this? You gotta have this!

[I take note of the many records with hoochie-lookin women on the covers, with Playboy style tease poses.]

So Pam, what do you make of this, the way wax is marketed to deejays as if they’re all men, with the girlie photos and all?
Girls don’t put out records [as much], that’s why it’s like this.

Are you planning on putting anything out?
I’ve got two mixes, one is an all Bay Area mix, it’s the knock! It’s like slammin! It’s got Mobb, Cellie Cell, RBL Posse. Apollo is working on my cover art. For the cover I want a lady’s hand with dj needles as her fingernails and “Pam the Funkstress” written on it. Just an idea.

Have you been doing radio?
I did AOL live with Davey D and KMEL with Alex Mejia.

What gigs are you playing right now?
Some Saturdays I play Strawberry at the Endup in SF, it’s Toph One’s party. You can play anything. People get down. I can play Mack 10 there and they love it.

I heard you manage a small business also?
Yeah—I run a catering business and I’m still doin it. It has been good. God has blessed me! I do weddings, and in the summertime I am really busy. For three months straight—it was bad timing this summer. I deejayed and catered a wedding in August and it was tiring.

Have you been interviewed a lot?
I was on 92.7FM recently. But me, I’m not gonna go whining after anyone. I’m not into going after the press thing, if they want to talk to me, they come to me.

So what are the tracks you always gotta play?
Biggie-”Hypnotize”
Snoop-”Bitch Please” and “Upside Your Head”
Tribe Called Quest-anything.
Lil Buck-old stuff.
EPMD-”You Gots to Chill
That’s me.

...But truly, having the records is only half the game, the other half is all about your skills. Pam’s straight-up style while talking is refreshing, cuz she doesn’t play up the fact that she has amazing skills, and pulls off deejay tricks that leave guys with their mouths hanging and their eyes envious (literally, I’ve seen it). I thank her and SHOUT! for the fun field trip to the store and set out home with my own little stack to do what Pam says – pull em out, play em, and get into it, prepping for the next party to rock.

Goapele

2004-10-10T22:00:00.000-07:00

Goapele
pic by Bayeté Ross-Smith.

-by Folklore

Mispronunciations aside, Oakland vocalist Goapele [Gwa-pa-lay] has been timesharing ears with Okayplayer songbirds Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Meshell NDegeocello, and Jaguar Wright for a season or two. Year-’round, she manages Skyblaze Recordings, the label she co-owns with her brother Namane; and together they’ve scored a national distribution deal with Sony.

Goapele means “to go forward” in the South African dialect of her grandmother, Tswana. The 27-year-old South African and Jewish artist has lived up to her name through the strength of some local airplay of “Closer”–the first single from her debut album Even Closer: a foray through the phenomena of life, love, and politics. She built her skill by way of the Oakland Youth chorus, the Berklee School of Music in Boston, and her brother’s deejay/production crew Local 1200.
In 2001, Goapele toured internationally with Spearhead, and appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman. In 2002, she introduced some uncharacteristic crooning to the hip-hop audience on the Hieroglyphics’ footlong “Soweto.” In 2003, “Closer” lit up the Honey OST soundtrack. Now, in 2004, she’s on the cover of SHOUT! Magazine. What could possibly be next for this rising star?

SHOUT! At what point did you realize that music would be your career?
Goapele: I would say as a child. I thought about it when I was a little girl. I watched people at live shows, musicians, singers, and dancers on stage. I listened to a lot of albums that my parents had, my own music, and music that my peers were getting, and I felt like that’s what I wanted to do. And not just to be a singer, but to be in the arts, and singing was one of those things.

Describe your own music with any pertinent influences.
I write songs from a lot of my own experiences. I’ve been influenced by a lot of different music from South African jazz and soul to hip-hop to rhythm & blues to all types of different music, and I’m just trying to create music that I feel, and it doesn’t really fall into a category. But you know people interpret it in different ways when they hear it.

How does your family influence your musical career? I understand that your brother is your manager, so how is that situation as opposed to a strictly professional relationship?
It’s the only situation I’ve ever been in to be honest with you. It’s the way that I started so I don’t even have anything to compare it to. But I do work closely with people that I trust and we share a vision, and I’m thankful that that’s my experience and introduction into the music business.

Discuss the transition from the initial indie release–which I guess sold like 3,000 units–to a Columbia distribution deal with extended advertising and guest financing. How does that change your resources?
The 3,000 copies is what we initially sold in the Bay Area before we even started our own record label when we were selling the EP at live shows and at Amoeba and Rasputin. Then we decided to start our own label called Skyblaze Recordings and got national distribution with the support of Hieroglyphics. And we actually sold about 65,000 independently–mainly in the Bay Area and in California, but also throughout other parts of the US. We just did a deal with Sony in December I guess, and then they re-released the album. So Even Closer has continued to sell since then. I haven’t noticed that much of a change; the music definitely has stayed the same. We added one remix on the album of “Childhood Drama,” which we just weren’t able to release before. Probably by being involved with Sony, we’ve gotten some more financial backing that has made touring and costly things like that a lot more accessible, but I couldn’t tell you about any dramatic changes. I’m working on an album now that will [release] on Skyblaze/Columbia, that will just start coming out in that way [nationally distributed].

What would your career highlight thus far be?
Getting to meet other artists [which] I greatly admire [who] are aware of my music and support it. That has been really special to me. Getting to see the effect of my music on other people that I may not have known that I would touch, or would even be into what I’m doing. It catches me off guard sometimes and feels like a blessing, and I feel like I’m doing music for more than just my own enjoyment, so that feels good.

You previously mentioned Hieroglyphics, your brother was a DJ and you started singing over hip-hop instrumentals, and you said a certain portion of your fans might not have heard of you if it weren’t for “Soweto”. So you’re bringing in people from different genres. What’s your relationship with hip-hop?
I see myself as part of the hip-hop generation before hip-hop was so popular, and the all-ages events that I was going to were hip-hop events. Even in youth activism, I feel like hip-hop as part of the youth culture was very present. I feel like it’s a lot of my generation’s music, and I would associate myself with hip-hop even if I didn’t do music that had any emcees on it. I think hip-hop’s a combination of old soul music and hard-hitting drums that go way back to African drumming, although it’s changed so much in the music today. But I think even jazz, which has been sampled and had also influenced hip-hop. I think a lot of different music is related, and it’s one of the [types of] music that I relate to and incorporate in my own original music.

How do you feel about the responsibilities of being a full-time artist–maintaining or just submitting to a public persona? You’re now seen as Goapele the singer, as opposed to just another person.
I surround myself by people who know me as a person, and try not to get too caught up. I think I’ve always been a pretty self-aware person, so I may feel more responsibility and feel like I’m representing a little bit more when I make my decisions. But I’m pretty much making the same decisions; I just have more opportunities to do different things now.

The Age of Divisadero Soul

2004-10-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

Divisadero,-SF-1944, originally uploaded by smallaxe.

by Mike Conway

If I could travel anywhere, it would be back in time. I want to go back and see, hear and feel the places and moments we can only study now. Going back in time is not as hard as it seems; many backdrops of the past remain with us. All you have to do is go to those places and imagine the things you know about the past, and you’re there.

I just got back from such a trip, that I took after speaking with Ms. Josephine Robinson. From 1959 to 1977, she and her husband ran a nightclub and restaurant at 543 Divisadero Street in San Francisco. During this period, just four blocks east, the Fillmore Jazz Era was in full swing. Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and countless other gods of jazz played up and down Fillmore. The ‘Moe had a reputation as the Harlem of the West.

But along nearby Divis, a parallel surge of jazz and early soul was blazing. More than just a music scene, Divisadero was its own nation, its own economy, and its own revolution. History has mostly forgotten this street; Ms. Robinson has not.

Though she modestly insists her memory has faded in her old age, she lucidly recalled a lot about her tenure at Club Morocco. Her kind, grandmotherly voice spoke of the many patrons she would occasionally “po’liquor” for. Herb Caen ate there often, and called the Morocco the “Salt ‘n’ Pepper” because it drew both blacks and whites together in their mutual quest for good food, music, and fun. This was at a time when prejudice was the absolute status quo; even in San Francisco, a woman couldn’t serve alcohol in a bar unless she was on the liquor license. Never the less, the Morocco was a place where all kinds of folks could dress up and get some dinner, dance, and catch acts like Ike and Tina, Marvin Gaye, and BB King. Giants’ legendary ballers Willie Mays and McCovey might be eating at the table across from yours.

But the Morocco was much more than a happening joint. It was part of a whole scene. All along Divisadero, you had bars and nightclubs like the Both And, the Bird of Paradise, the Sportsmen’s, and the Half Note. Across the street, at the Harding Theater, Curtis Mayfield played one of his last shows in the city. Up until 1965, folks would dance and parley up and down Divis until 2:00am, then hop over the hill to the ‘Moe and famous places like Bop City, which carried the vibe until the break of dawn.

But more importantly, Club Morocco was one of the many African American-owned businesses. Ms. Robinson recalled that throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s on Divisadero, roughly 75% of all businesses were black owned. It was its own economy of beauty parlors, barber shops, boutiques and, of course, the nightclubs. You could get a haircut, eat a nice meal and dance your ass off to live music, all in a single block.

In 1955, just as the Robinsons were putting together the money that bought 543 Divisadero, the U.S. Supreme Court set the guidelines for desegregation in its Brown II decision. Yet oppression-by-segregation would not just end at the drop of a gavel. Brown II might have been a wonderful development in the Civil Rights Struggle, but it was also wonderfully vague. Blacks might have been free to then find work unimpeded by law, but they had been deprived of such opportunities for centuries. “Sure you can join our union, but—what’s this? No union experience? Sorry.”

That’s where the Robinson family stepped up. To help their community, the Robinsons hired waitresses, bartenders, and busboys—way more of them than they ever needed—so that black folks could get the necessary work hours and go on to get jobs, join unions, gain benefits and live better lives. So when you went to the Morocco, you weren’t just seeing Marvin Gaye or James Brown rock the house, you were seeing a subtle revolution against de jure racism. And with so much wait-staff, the service at Morocco must have been impeccable.

The ‘70s brought the notoriously scandalous “redevelopment” of the Fillmore district. Buildings that housed black families and businesses were being suspiciously condemned for “utility upgrades”; fires would mysteriously destroy others. By 1977, Divisadero was reeling from it all. Businesses folded as pimps and prostitution moved in full time. An ardent Protestant, Ms. Robinson could no longer stomach serving this new clientele. She convinced her husband to sell, just before the avalanche of crack and Reaganomics plowed through.

Tony Bennet is famous for leaving his heart in San Francisco; San Francisco itself often leaves its heart in the past. The forces of change have paved over many subtle charms of this city, leaving us with only the nostalgia for a bygone time. But just the other night, after I spoke with Ms. Robinson, I took a stroll down Divisadero, and imagined myself there, many years before I was born. The streets would’ve bustled with people of all backgrounds, the scents of dinner would be wafting out the Morocco and Curtis Mayfield would be sound-checking at the Harding. Maceo Parker just might drop in later on...

Then, as I steered my mind back to the present, I wondered, “is that type of thing so far off?” Bars and clubs have returned to Divis, why can’t the vibe? Hell, there’s streets like this all over the Bay, why can’t they have it too? We got the music, we just need the venues and events.

Just recently, the former Morocco, now Club Waziema, just got all the necessary permits to do what they always have at that address. Liquor, entertainment, operating ‘til 2:00am: licenses like these eluded the bar for years, until its customers and neighbors began to pressure city and state agencies to cough them up. It’s said over and over that a community working together can make a difference, and it’s true. When a community (hint!) collaborates to promote and support itself, in whatever way, what would it need of any outside help? Would a community then need corporations to create jobs for it? Not really. Would it rely on politicians to slowly dole out rights and privileges to it? Probably not. When we start to provide these things to ourselves, then maybe we could get serious about revolution and independence as a movement.

Issue One

2004-07-19T22:29:00.000-07:00

Issue One Cover, Cover Photo by Bayeté Ross-Smith.

4OneFunk

2004-07-19T22:00:00.007-07:00

4OneFunk
Pic by Matt Reamer.

By Jeremy Tanner

“The vibe at a 4OneFunk party is a little bit different than when you go to the Sound Factory... we play the right records to rock a crowd all night,” Says Teeko, last year’s winner at the Disco Mixing Championships in San Francisco. SHOUT! spoke with him and Mr.B—two-time reigning Kool Mix champion. One half of 4OneFunk, they’ve blessed the Bay Area and international crowds for several years with innovation and style to make even the heaviest hitters of the DJ culture take notice.

Along with AlesOne and B-Cause, 4OneFunk destroyed all challengers from the United States and Canada to represent the USA at the International Turntable Federation championships in Germany this past December. In proper representation of their name, they brought the ITF group and scratching titles back to the 415. 4OneFunk has been hyping major crowds for artists such as Gang Starr, the Roots, Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick and Camp Lo, but are now focusing their energy on local Bay Area clubs so check ‘em out or visit online at www.4OneFunk.com.

SHOUT!: Do you believe that there is a “Bay Area Sound” that is characteristic of the hip-hop coming out of Frisco, Oakland, Vallejo, Daly City, etc.?
Mr.B: Yes I do. When rappers like Too Short came out, they provided a sound and slang that influences hip-hop to this day. From E-40, Rappin 4-Tay, Mac Mall... Too Short made it possible for all the rappers to come up. Being independent also paved the way for groups like Heiroglyphics and the Living Legends to get a fan base.
Teeko: I don’t think a Bay Area Sound exists, that doesn’t seem reasonable, since the level of innovation is so high. You couldn’t pinpoint a sound and use it to generalize a community, if the community is as broad and creative as the Bay is. I think making music is a good thing, whatever sound it is...the creative aspects mean much more to me than categorizing a community.

SHOUT!: How would you describe the music that comes out of here?
Mr.B: Being really ghetto with beats. Trying to do shit that no one else would think of. Being abstract, not making a song with a normal format (a lot of songs will be one long verse). As for deejays, the sound is in the scratching. Most Bay Area deejays have patience when they scratch. We’re musicians and we like to be composed and smooth with our scratching. You can’t mess with Q-Bert, D-Styles, Quest, Disk, Flare, Teeko or Ales-one on the cut. They are too funky!
Teeko: The Bay Area has a wide variety of styles and ways to express them through music. The Bay is full of innovative, creative people who are not intimidated to create original sounds. Through rap we’ve been originating slang and flow. The amount of music that is being made that hasn’t surfaced yet is amazing and when it does, new ways of creating sounds will be known, and it’s all happening here in the Bay.

The Gift of Gab and Lateef the Truthspeaker

2004-07-19T22:00:00.006-07:00

pic by Bayeté Ross-Smith.
story by Mike Conway

Hip-hop is rarely the story of individuals. It’s more often the chronicle of crews. These tight social units come together over time, become family and sometimes emerge as dynasties. Over thirty years and counting and who knows what’s next for hip-hop?

One crew that will give you a good idea is the folks from Quannum collective. They have been hip-hop for well over a decade. And in 2004 Quannum has emerged with guns blazing as both a crew and a recording label LLC.

The crew formed in the early 1990’s, at UC Davis. Known then as the Solesides, the crew consisted of The Gift of Gab and Chief Xcel (collectively Blackalicious), Lateef and Lyrics Born (Latyrx), DJ Shadow, and DJ Zen (aka Jeff Chang). Joyo Velarde is never listed as a part of the crew in the Davis days, but she should be; she studied opera in Rome and influenced the Solesides’ breath control that is their signature rap technique.

Under the Solesides banner, the crew forged a dedicated underground following, with jams like “Deep In the Jungle” (1995), “Burning Hot in Cali...” and “Balcony Beach” (both 1996). The vibe was playful but edgy; lyrically the Solesides blend swift-lipped bravado with graceful word-play, and their production is all about potent, driving beats. In 1998, the Solesides changed their moniker, becoming the Quannum Projects LLC.

As if to show how tight they continue to be, the Quannum crew just finished a road-show last April on a bill titled the Quannum World Tour; it read like a P-Funk All Stars show: The Gift of Gab, Lateef, DJ Chief Xcel, Mr. Lyrics Born and Mrs. Joyo Velarde, DJ D-Sharp, the Lifesavas, and DJ Shadow.

Shadow played what might the hottest deejay item this Xmas: DVD turntables. He dropped visual cuts, and even spun up video alter-egos that did battle raps with the real Lifesavas onstage. He managed six turntables alongside deejays Chief Xcel and D Sharp. Joyo was a one-girl I-Threes. The crowd knew every word to Lyrics Born’s latest album, Later that Day. Lateef, rocking the A’s gear, had the whole hometown crowd waving its hands. And Gab was clearly the head Master of Ceremony.

Every one of them were onstage, in various combinations and all together, tight like DNA. They had no hollow agenda; their message was sincere: Have Fun and Change the Fucking World! It was a live definition of the Quannum collective ethic: you never get just one shining star; it’s always a family affair.

Quannum is an interesting name. Coined by Chief Xcel, it is derived from quantum physics. Physics suggest mind-boggling equations with formidable symbols representing matter and energy. In the Quannum equation, each integer says a lot about the crew’s energetic work ethic.

Take a look at two integral parts of the crew: The Gift of Gab and Lateef the Truthspeaker. They’re the kind of rappers that make you feel sorry for a lot of other emcees. The volume of raps and skills they kick is enough to swell your brain. These two bring an endless range of rhymes that span from battle raps to social commentary to spirituality to some damn good advice; and they do it with a simple clarity, sometimes all in a single song. They’ve worked together on most of Quannum’s projects, and toured together across the world. Each are now driving new projects down uncharted paths. Gab completed his premier solo flight, and Lateef is putting together his first full-length outside of Latyrx.

The Gift launched his solo Fourth Dimensional Rocket Ships Going Up back in May. Gab envisioned this project four years back when he was working with Chief Xcel on Blackalicious’ Nia album. But he’d only found the time to do it over a year ago. In between Blackalicious tours, he would trek to Seattle to develop and record the album with producers Jake One and Vitamin D. Though Gab’s neck-snapping raps may sound familiar, his production team features beats that are laid-back like a late-night discussion between sounds. Fourth Dimensional is Gift of Gab as his own element, apart from Blackalicious. Apart, but not separated: “It’s always healthy in any group to reach out and work with other people as well because that’s how you grow; that’s how you bring back strength to the group,” Gab says.

Meanwhile, Lateef kept Blackalicious deejay Chief Xcel busy in the form of the Maroons; they’ve just released the EP Ambush with a long-player on its way this September. “X don’t like me giving out secrets,” ‘Teef says about the project, “but there’s some EPMD stuff [on it] that’s like Brazilian and you wouldn’t know it unless somebody told you.” Also, Lateef will bust his most overtly political rhymes to-date, building on social commentaries heard on tracks like “The Last Trumpet” and “Kalakuta Show”. But while labelmates Lyrics Born and The Gift of Gab went in more pioneering directions with their solos, the Lateef-and-Chief combo is taking it back the roots of hip-hop for a more classic, “straight-up-the-middle” sound, says Lateef.

It might be hard to imagine exactly what Lateef means by “straight-up-the-middle” until you check the lyrics deacon on stage. Doing his signature track “The Wreckoning”, for example, Lateef definitely keeps one foot firmly in the old school. “The stuff that I do is in keeping with what hip-hop is all about. We’re all really students of this,” says Lateef, fondly recalling how emcee PhD’s like Chuck D and KRS ONE respect his scholarly approach. “It’s really all the appreciation that I need.”

The Truth Speaker sees the same reverence for hip-hop’s origins in much of the music that has emerged from the Bay Area. “One thing about the Bay Area that is unique is over how it has evolved; it was always very open to all kinds of music from all kinds of different places. Of all those differentiations in hip-hop, they all exist right here, within a 100 mile radius.” Bay Area crews have embraced every style hip-hop has given them, and made it new time and again.

Gab concurs. He therefore cautions against using labels divisively: “A lot of times, people get it twisted, like these are the conscious rappers over here and those are the gangster rappers over there. It’s like divide-and-conquer, like because I’m considered a conscious rapper, I’m not supposed to feel 50 Cent. To me, some of the dopest hip-hop ever made was gangster. What makes the music dope is it’s a circle of all different people in life.” Though he may have a different aesthetic than a bona-fide ballaholic like E-40, Gab none-the-less credits E-40’s style as a major influence, on him and all of hip-hop.

Labeling the music of Gift of Gab and Lateef, or the rest of the Quannum ensemble, is especially impractical. Every project they put out defies categories and opens hip-hop wide every time. Labeling music into types can never truly explain the avante-garde. “Because we can’t be packaged in a box,” Lateef says, “that hinders us when it comes to major [media] outlets. Even if the producers enjoy the music, they still have a hard time selling it to venues like MTV... If you’re locked into what media says hip-hop or rap is right now, you might not be able to hear what we’re doing.”

Yet while mass media may have a hard time wrapping their brains around quality independent hip-hop, major record labels won’t hesitate to pick up an underground artist. Blackalicious already signed with MCA for Blazing Arrow, which Gab explains as a “positive experience”. He notes that independent artists struggle to get on the radio and television. But if it’s done right, as was the case with Blazing, partnering with major labels can get artists over that hump to reach a wider audience. Just because artists may be “independent” doesn’t mean they can’t walk on a bigger stage. On Blazing’s track “4000 Miles” Gab explains it in a question: “who said that underground is only just one mode?”

However, while working with majors like MCA can be positive for the artist, the business end can get complicated. Take the example of royalties—the means by which an artist is compensated for their work. As an industry rule, artists are paid 12% of the total album sales in royalties. So if you cut 12 songs on an album, each song adds a point to that 12%. But for a group like Blackalicious, whose projects consistently yield 17+ songs, the value of each song then drops. And once you factor in collaborations with side-artists and sampling, all of which the artist has to pay, royalties become even less majestic. Under that royalty system, an artist has no incentive to do those extra songs, to sample this or that, or to collaborate with him or her.

But that’s where independent labels like Quannum Projects have a leaner advantage; they may have smaller appetites but bigger tables to seat creativity. Lateef puts it this way, “I don’t have to worry about my label flip-floppin around all the time and having that absorb my mental space. I always have a way that I could put out the records that I’m working on.” Together with that freedom, plus the resources Quannum has built as a crew, Lateef can collaborate with whomever on whatever. And at the end of the day, he can rest assured that Quannum has his back.

Creative-friendly environments such as this help to draw a circle of creative friends. That circle is the foundation of any crew worth its battle raps. Crews are a source of strength and support for its members. That support is vital, especially nowadays when the music industry at large is not inclined to develop the artists that they make millions on. Apart from being a very basic affiliation of friends and colleagues, the crew is just a better business model for creative individuals.

But all the complexities of business and media aside, Gift of Gab qualifies the music the Quannum crew creates as something higher: “We’ve been blessed by the opportunity to create, and I feel it’s my responsibility to utilize that blessing to the fullest.”

Sunspot Jonz

2004-07-19T22:00:00.005-07:00

Sunspot Jonz
Image rendered by M.Conway
pic courtesy of legendarymusic.net

by Jesse Ducker

He drove thousands of miles. He lost countless hours of sleep. He begged record stores to put his tape on their racks. He pleaded with venues to land gigs for his crew. He yelled, stomped, and rocked across stages the world over. Sunspot Jonz Created a hip-hop movement through sheer force of will...

To this day, Sunspot Jonz—one-half of the Mystik Journeymen and one member of the Living Legends crew—is surprised how far he’s come. After years of doing shows for rent money, Sunspot and the Legends are in the driver’s seat. They book their own worldwide tours. They press up their own albums. They run their own labels.

“I never imagined in 2004 that we’d still be going,” Sunspot said. “We always just thought about the next step rather than the big picture.”

Now, Sunspot says, “we control our own destiny. We put out our dreams, as opposed to doing what other people think we can do.”

An East Oakland native, Sunspot started following his dreams back in 1991. Known then as BFAP—the Brother From Another Planet—Sunspot ran with a few different rap crews, but always found that he was the most motivated to make shit happen. He was the most willing to drive down to places like Santa Cruz to perform. He even wrote raps for the other members of his crew. He was also the first one to put money down on a sampler, which back then was “the size of a dinner table.”

Sunspot met Luckyiam through a mutual friend. Lucky, then known as the Psychedelic Step Child, or PSC, lived down in Los Angeles. Sunspot said Lucky was the first emcee he met who was as serious about making the music as he was.

Over time Sunspot talked Lucky into moving to the Bay Area. When he arrived in Oakland, Lucky got a place at Sunspot’s aunt’s house; on the floor, between Sunspot’s bed and the wall. The pair formed the Mystik Journeymen soon after and started performing anywhere they could finagle their way into.

“Lucky always had my back,” Sunspot said. “We were always broke, but we kept on working to make our dreams come true.”

The two hustled to build the scene in the Bay in any way possible. When Sunspot moved into a warehouse space with a few friends, he built a stage in their common area holding shows right there to raise rent money and extra loot.

As they worked to get their name out, Mystik met other like-minded local artists–groups like Cytoplasmz, Mixed Practice, and Sacramento’s The CUF. They all worked together to find venues that would host local talent.

At one point, Sunspot went to La Peña Cultural Center to score a show for Mystik and some other local artists. La Peña was an unlikely venue at the time that mostly hosted Latino-based cultural events. But Sunspot persisted, and La Peña’s owners said yes. Though there was some static at the first event, the owners let Mystik hold more events at the center. Soon, La Peña became a haven for Mystik and Bay-Area underground fans from the mid to late ’90s.

These shows were part of what Mystik called the “Underworld Movement”. As their audience grew, Mystik started using unique tactics to draw more people in. The cover was only $3 if you came with a pack of Top Ramen or $5 with some Now & Laters. “Motherfuckers were hungry,” Sunspot said.

This morphed into “Unsigned and Hella Broke Summer Jams.” They were evening-long megashows featuring unsigned local talent whom Mystik had crossed paths with. The first show was in the Summer of ’95 and they continue to hold them to this day.

Sunspot begged the hip-hop buyer at the now-defunct Leopold’s Record Store in Berkeley to stock copies of Mystik Journeymen’s first single, “Never Forget” b/w “Give it Up.” Sunspot and Lucky copied all the tapes themselves with a tape duplicator, made the labels through a hook-up at Kinko’s, and used the record store’s shrink-wrap machine to package the tapes. This DIY single became a best seller in short order.

“We were one of the first underground groups to start flipping tapes like that,” Sunspot said.

By 1996, Mystik formed their own crew, the Living Legends. Composed of themselves, Grouch, Eligh, Bicasso, Aesop, Murs, and Arata—whom they actually met while on tour in Japan. Scarub joined a few years later.

The Living Legends hit their peak in the Bay when they sold out the Martime Hall in both 1999 and 2000. They could headline a show and pack the venue with 2,000 or 3,000 people. Also on the bill would be over a half a dozen local artists and groups.

Soon after, the majority of the crew, including Sunspot, decided to move to Los Angeles. “We just wanted a change,” Sunspot said. “We didn’t want to turn into one of those groups that perform in the same place over and over again. It was just time. We’d done everything we could possibly do in the Bay.”

Though Sunspot no longer lives in the Bay Area, he still comes home to support the scene.

“When I come back, I feel like I’ve let down the Bay. There’s no scene in the Bay anymore, that’s the scariest shit. There’s no community. There’s no shows, there’s no place to go. I hate to have to say shit like that, but no one else has really done a lot to help promote the scene.

“It seems like these days artists care mostly about themselves. They’re not thinking about throwing their own shows, they’re thinking about how to get so they can open up for other acts. The difference was that ‘Broke Ass Summer Jams’ brought everything together, Mystik Journeymen was never just about ourselves, we were about creating a whole scene for everybody.”

Nowadays, Bay Area artists’ clout isn’t nearly as strong. Most local groups are lucky to open up for mid-level acts from New York and Los Angeles when they come to town. Hieroglyphics are one of few Bay Area crews to get much love at the local venues.

Still, Sunspot Jonz loves to perform in front of the hometown crowd. He also records lots of music. After releasing his second solo album Don’t Let Them Stop You on Battle Axe Records, he’s putting out number three, Journey to the Sun, through Red Distribution.

Meanwhile, Mystik Journeymen plan to release their next album, Best In Show, through Red later in 2004. The Living Legends recently released Creative Differences, which mostly features solo tracks from the crew members. They will follow up with Never Falling Down this Fall. Watch for that release in conjunction with another Living Legends’ nationwide tour.

Michael Franti on Bay Area hip-hop

2004-07-19T22:00:00.004-07:00

Michael Franti
Pic by Shashari Murphy.

By Charlie Russo

When it comes to music experiences around the Bay Area, you can’t help but have more than a few Michael Franti stories. Sunny day free concerts in Dolores Park, rousing spoken word at political rallies, rambunctious shows at the Fillmore, acoustic jams in a tightly-packed Baobab... the list is as diverse as it is long.

Little surprise really, since Franti has been a notable presence in the Bay Area for almost 15 years now. Like Santana and Jello Biafra before him, he has become a veteran musician that embodies the most prominent features of Bay Area culture—creativity, diversity, activism, and a firm willingness to take risks. These qualities have won him an audience as eclectic as his sound, from the jam band circuit to the main stage at blues and reggae festivals.

When it comes to the realm of hip-hop, Franti has always played by his own rules. Incorporating the best of his early punk industrial effort of the Beatnigs, Franti and co-collaborator Rono Tse threw the music world a ferocious curve ball with the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. If Rage Against The Machine was Public Enemy meets the Clash, then the Disposable Heroes were like Gil Scott Heron performing in a steel mill.

Franti then went on to form Spearhead, an upbeat collision of roots reggae, hip-hop and live instruments. At a time when the music industry wanted more “Gin n’ Juice”, Franti and Spearhead instead offered up tracks like “Love is da Shit” and “Red Beans and Rice”.

SHOUT!: Can you give us some perspective into what characterizes the local hip-hop sound?
Michael Franti: Well, I hate putting names on it, but you have your Oakland sound—artists like Too Short... and E-40 in his part of the Bay. You got the kids around the Fillmore, and that’s kind of a more—I don’t even like calling it mainstream—but it’s more the commercial side of hip-hop: what’s really selling lots of records around the country. I hate the word “commercial” because it’s really roots... it’s really a roots sound... but it’s what’s selling a lot of records around the country.
Then you got stuff that’s been going on in the clubs for a long time—jazz cum hip-hop—with groups like Alphabet Soup and Midnight Voices, and our group.

I guess I was curious how you’ve seen it evolve over the years?
Well... just like rock music when it started out, you can narrow it to one place. You can say, “It was Chuck Berry... Bo Diddley or Fats Domino or Little Richard.” And then pretty soon it became as diverse as Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles. Now you have Sheryl Crow at one end and you got Metallica at the other, and everything in between: punk rock and a lot of [other] offshoots.
And I see that that’s what has happen to a certain degree with hip-hop, especially in the Bay Area. I really wish it would have happened more, I really wish there had been opportunities—if hip-hop grew—for it to be more diverse in its sound and styles.
But I think there still will come a day—as the original hip-hop listeners grow older and are looking for different styles of music that represent where they are, and there are new kids coming up—that the diversity will hopefully occur in the same way that it has in rock music.

To what extent do you see Bay Area diversity—diversity of the culture politically and artistically—finding its way into the music?
The Bay Area has always been a hot bed for progressive politics. We had the movements of the 60’s over here: the Black Panthers in Oakland, the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley with people like Mario Savio, gay rights, a lot of environmental activism in Northern California... and all of these things tend to find their way into the music.
In addition to that we’ve had a really broad diversity of music outside of hip-hop, like Sly and the Family Stone who were really combining a lot of different styles of music—same thing with Santana, and even Jimi Hendrix when he was around here. There is a lot of history and diversity here, and artists like myself and Paris and Boots from the Coup are really on the forefront of trying to keep the political voice alive in hip-hop.

In that sense, you’ve never pulled any punches with your political beliefs. Can you convey the reality of being an outspoken artist and how that factors in to also having a career in the music industry?
Well, first of all it’s very rewarding to me. I don’t get to be on the radio and TV all the time. But I get to meet and connect with, and sometimes even move people who are really in a difficult spot in their life.
We play in a lot of prisons, we go to a lot of schools, we travel all the time. You know... we spend more time out of America then in America. So we get to see a lot. I’ve lived a very unique life and I feel lucky for music to be the doorway to that.
So as each year has gone by I’ve been trying to expand my focus, and right now we’re planning a trip to the Middle East; going to Israel and Palestine, and hopefully Iraq (if things simmer down enough for us to go). We’ll be making a film of our experience. The focus of our visit is to try to hook up with musicians and artists—especially in hip-hop—but whoever is willing to meet with us, and see just how artists and musicians in places of great turmoil are dealing with making music in their life.

Before I ask about Spearhead, I was curious about how you look back on the Disposable Heroes?
I just met last night with Chris Blackwell (who we were on Island Records with at the time), and he was saying to me that of all the albums that he put out with Island—Bob Marley, U2, Traffic, Grace Jones—that the Disposable Heroes record ranks among the top 20 that he had put out. And I was really in shock to hear him say that. It seems that as each year goes by, I meet more people who are affected by that record.

What then prompted the transition from Disposable Heroes to Spearhead?
When we were in Disposable Heroes, Charlie Hunter was also in the band... and so he was playing a lot of real jazzy stuff and we were doing this real noisy industrial hip-hop.
I really liked the moods that you could evoke through chords and more musical stuff as opposed to just loud beats. I found that to write a song like ‘Positive’ (which we put out on the Home album), I couldn’t have done that over noisy beats. So I started working with Charlie making some music, and Rono really wanted to go in a different direction from that. So we parted ways and I started making the first Spearhead album.
I also have felt that in terms of my own personal creativity that hip-hop has been really stifled by radio, and that the demands of radio and the grouping of radio networks to form these huge Clear Channel bodies that control what’s on the air, this has made the music be less and less creative.

I was gonna ask you about Clear Channel... and as a professional musician, what kind of influence you see it having?
Today everything has to sound a certain way. All the music has to talk about being a player... and there is very little room for any dialogue about anything else on the radio. That sucks because they are preying on the lowest common denominator of young people, and that influences youth culture in a non-progressive way.
...I can’t speak for other artists, but I can just say that in the U.S.A. the easiest things to sell are sex and violence. So that’s what the record industry and their infinite lust for immediate hits... that’s what’s they want from rap artists. And because there is a lot of money to be made, rap artists jump in line to do it. Other forms of music don’t have that same onus placed on it. You don’t see the Counting Crows being obligated to make gangster music.

To close... I was curious that for all the traveling you do, what is it about the Bay Area that makes it home for you?
I don’t know. I own a home in Hunter’s Point and that is where I feel really comfortable. My neighborhood feels unlike a lot of other neighborhoods that I have lived in San Francisco. It is a neighborhood where people have lived for a generation in the same homes. You go outside and you know your neighbors. It’s not really a transient neighborhood like the Mission, or the Haight, ...
Then I really appreciate and respect that the Bay Area has been such a hot bed of progressive voices and also gives an opportunity for musicians to try and to fail and to have another shot at trying again. So there are a lot of artists and musicians and filmmakers and painters who have an opportunity to not get laughed out of town when they do something different. It breeds creativity and you see really unique art happening... not only in hip-hop but all around the city.

Independents Under Seige

2004-07-19T22:00:00.003-07:00

"The flow of communication is being hindered by political and commercial forces..."
by Thomas Hynes

For most of 2004, the American home front has been littered with an indecency scare. While it’s okay to view images of war, crucifixions and torture on T.V., Janet Jackson’s titty will simply not be tolerated.

Headed by Michael Powell, (son of Secretary of State Colin Powell), the Federal Communications Commission has answered the cries of outraged Americans, promising to wield fines of up to $500,000 for each instance of indecency.

But society is already flush with potty mouth. Powell’s crusade is just a red herring for one of the grossest examples of corporate conglomeration since the days of the steel tycoons and robber barons. Except today, the commodities are the nations airwaves and the people’s access to information. The Bay Area, like the rest of the nation, finds itself at a junction where the flow of communication is being hindered by political and commercial forces.

Though the FCC has tightened its noose around foul language and nudity, it has not gotten tough on conglomeration. Since the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, companies such as Clear Channel have been able to grow and expand without restriction. Prior to the Act, Clear Channel owned 40 radio stations nationwide. Today they own 1,240 radio stations nationwide. They are also the nation’s largest concert promoter. So in the majority of American cities, you’d better jive with whatever Clear Channel says otherwise neither you nor your concert information will be heard on the airwaves. In a way, Clear Channel’s not really threatening free speech directly, so much as they’re just hoarding up all the soapboxes.

They tried to take Davey D’s soapbox, when he was a deejay for Clear Channel-owned KMEL 106.1, aka “The Peoples Station”. Davey D was fired for inviting Congresswoman Barbara Lee on his show on October 1st, 2001. Clear Channel felt that the views expressed by Davey D and Congresswoman Lee on the impending war in Afghanistan were not in line with the station’s philosophy. That Monday, Davey D was informed that KMEL was cutting its budget and letting him go. And even though Davey D was a cultural and educational pillar of KMEL, he was not afforded the opportunity to say goodbye to his listeners. His Saturday afternoon show “Street Knowledge” was immediately canceled and upcoming guests Jesse Jackson and Ralph Nader were not rebooked. Luckily, we can still hear from Davey D on KPFA 94.1 FM and at his website http://www.daveyd.

Harrison Chastane, News Director for San Francisco’s KPOO 89.5 FM, fears the ambiguity of this new FCC initiative and says no specific written criteria exist on the commission’s recent position. He pointed out that obscenity fines are now being handed out for infractions outside of the “seven dirty words” banned by the Supreme Court. KPOO might even have to suspend its coverage of town meetings due to the sometimes off-color nature of these civic proceedings. Chastane said that KPOO could remedy the problem by investing in a tape delay, but that would cost his station upwards of $3,000—a hefty cost for any independent radio station.

Similarly, stations such as KPOO are more reluctant to go to the mat with the FCC over these fines due to the cost of trying to fight them. Portland, Oregon’s KBOO won its case against the FCC and retained the right to broadcast such progressive voices as Mumia Abu Jamal. However, KBOO’s fight with the FCC cost around five times the original fine in legal fees.

Losing the ability to broadcast municipal proceedings should be enough to cause a public stir. However, this struggle seems to only have caught national attention last March when Howard Stern’s show was pulled from six Clear Channel markets. CEO John Hogan testified before Congress that day and apologized for the “vulgar, offensive and insulting” material broadcasted over his stations’ airwaves. And though there was no way to rectify the past, Mr. Hogan’s executive order, issued that same day, promised zero tolerance for any incident in the future.

I attempted to contact both KMEL 106.1 and KISQ 98.1 (also owned by Clear Channel) to see how Zero Tolerance would affect local programming; I got no response. I also tried to contact their corporate office in San Antonio; I called Lisa Dollinger, Senior VP of Corporate Communications for Clear Channel and author of the press release outlining Mr. Stern’s dismissal. Her secretary informed me that Ms. Dollinger was on the phone, so I left a message.

About an hour later, I got a call—not from Dollinger, or from Clear Channel at all, but from Joseph Lobello of Brainerd Communications, a media relations firm in New York City. He said that Miss Dollinger would be out of the office for the day—not on the other line as the secretary in San Anonio alleged.

Lobello was totally innocuous—like Clear Channel wasn’t actually some evil corporate giant after all. He made it seem like local programmers could play whatever they wanted. Unless, of course, programmers crossed Clear Channel’s line in the sand, in which case they would be fired immediately and, as Zero Tolerance implies, without exception.

But Davey D ain’t buying it. The real problem, according to him, is the lack of balancing points of view. If Clear Channel is allowed to grow to the size they have, they must bear the responsibility of presenting both sides of an issue. And that doesn’t mean giving an inch when a mile is required. Contrasting ideologies must be allowed full and clear articulation on a “People’s” radio. Anything less than that, according to Davey D, would be “window dressing... [like] throwing a morsel of food to a starving man.”

The FCC must spend less time fining obscenity and respond instead to Clear Channel’s conglomeration. At no point is monopolistic expansion healthy for anyone. In order to get airtime, artists must now conform to a corporate style dictated by a single board of executives, thus compromising creativity and losing the message. When fewer people control more of the airwaves, culture narrows to the disposition of the few.

Government and commerce must not have the sweeping control over our information outlets that they are now getting. Not when restrictions are being made on such basic civil liberties as marriage. Not when rumblings of lies and misdirection seem to stammer out of the White House on a daily basis. Not now. We must demand the truth and nothing else. We must realize that cuss words and malfunctioning wardrobes are not going to ruin this nation, but that lies, injustice and corporate censorship certainly will.

The NHHPC Five-Point Political Agenda:

2004-07-19T22:00:00.002-07:00

For four days in June, 2004, delegations of young people came together in New Jersey, tasked with a tremendous mission: articulate a political platform for the Hip-Hop Generation. Heads from all around the country were able to work past their differences and put together an agenda for the movement. Here's an abridged list of the first ever declaration of revolution from the hip-hop community. Check the entire platform here

EDUCATION:
Transparent school budgets. Create community committees that ensure proper spending & yearly audits. Require teachers bve district residents. Provide access to higher education for ALL immigrants. Create socially practical, culturally relevant curriculums. Eradicate illiteracy. Preserve affirmative action. Rollback tuition hikes & restore education budget cuts.

ECONOMIC JUSTICE:
No taxation without equitable representation. Rollback tax cuts for the wealthy. Corporations that receive tax breaks from municipalities must give two years notice before moving from those municipalities. Mandatory investments in underdeveloped neighborhoods. Reparations for indigenous peoples & descendants of the African Slave Trade. Living wages and equal pay/opportunities for both women & men.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE:
Provide opportunities for the accused & convicted in the criminal justice system. Separate ALL individuals under 18 from the adult prison system. End mandatory minimum sentences. Give civilian review boards subpoena power & independent prosecutors. Outlaw persecution of youth, drug users, & political activists. Eliminate corporate prison systems. Raise minimum wage/education standards in prisons.

HEALTH AND WELLNESS:
Provide affordable prescription drugs. Increase prevention & treatment efforts of HIV/AIDS, mental illness, heart disease, cancer, drug abuse, & other health issues. Ensure women’s reproductive health. Provide safe access to reproductive CHOICES. Improve education on reproductive issues.

HUMAN RIGHTS:
Investigate ALL human-rights violations committed by the U.S. government & fully disclose the findings. The NHHPC will convene such a commission within one year. Abolish terrorism in ALL areas of human activity. End militarization. Stop recruitment of youths into the military at public institutions. Repeal the Patriot Acts IMMEDIATELY. Oppose ANY military attempts to use hip-hop to recruit youths. Pull out of occupied territories like Iraq, Afghanistan & Puerto Rico. Relieve debt for previously-colonized & -enslaved countries.

Rasco

2004-07-19T22:00:00.001-07:00

Rasco with Planet Asia
pic courtesy of Pockets Linted Ent..

by Folklore

Aside from being their postal code, CA is an acronym for Cali Agents, the microphone cooperative consisting of San Francisco native Keida Brewer and Fresno-born Jason Greene–Dick Swan and Bleedy Eyes, or Rasco and Planet Asia respectively. Their sophomore campaign, Head of the State–following 1999’s How the West Was One–reintroduces their independent platform, which Rasco explains tersely as “more of the same.”

Taking it back to ’98, the duo first rallied on the Take it Back Home foot-long from the Soulfather’s debut long-player Time Waits for No Man off Stones Throw. The synthesis of Agents 1 and 2 was successful. However Rasco’s Unassisted 12” proved to be the standout nod. Subsequently, Time Waits emerged as an outstanding opus, receiving the “Top Indie Album of ’98” vote from the once-reputable Source Magazine.

Peanut Butter Wolf’s executive production assisted Rasco in building a dependable reputation, but Wolf’s influence extended further than moving units. “He’s like my favorite person, man,” Rasco says of Wolf. “The only person that I really felt like I met in the game that I respect and that respected me was Wolf. Outside of Asia...Chris [PB Wolf] is the only one that looked out for me and I felt like had my best interest [in mind] as well as I had his.”

Hailing from San Jose, P.B. Wolf manifested the Bay Area’s independent spirit in his Stones Throw label, which served as a one of the catalysts for Rasco’s own label. “I wanted what Wolf [was] doing,” says Rasco. “I wanted to do for somebody else what he did for me. Even the guys that I got on my label now look at me in that same light. They know that I got their best interests at hand, and I’m making sure that they’re all taken care of.”
The other catalyst is reflected in his business’ moniker, Pockets Linted. “It starts at the top: we’ll be getting a bigger piece of the pie by doing our own manufacturing,” explains Rasco. “Secondly, you get to keep an eye on everything that’s goin’ on. You know exactly how many records have been pressed. No records can be pressed without you doin’ it, so you’re just more in control. All the way down [to] the retail program and promotion, I’m involved all the way until the very last letter.”

With few exceptions, Bay Area musicians maintain the indie tradition–see Living Legends, Hieroglyphics, Quannum, et al.–enabling them to direct their artistry-turned-professions and avoid industry rule number 4080. Perhaps this phenomenon is what has allowed them to remain an autonomous collective, and recognizably so. “The Bay has a sound, but then again, it has different sounds,” says Rasco. “You might have that E-40 Click mafia, what they call mob music. You might have that and recognize that a dude is from the Bay, and that’s Bay Area music. But then again, you got different sounds like myself or Hiero or Zion I that make it what it is. Being out here kinda allows you to just be yourself.”
However, this creative control comes at the expense of sacrificing certain major label luxuries: aside from production and promotion expenses and nationwide exposure, you sacrifice your time.

“But the detriment [of running my own label] is that I spend a lot of time working on the business side and which then cuts back on the artistic side,” says Rasco. “So, I would like to be in the studio a lot more doing other things, but doing all of that in a day and having a kid, it keeps me from getting into the studio like I really really want to. It’s a hard juggle, but for me, I try to take time out for both, and it ends up workin’ out.

Cali Agent No. 1 has a staunch philosophy to match his unyielding work ethic. Case in point: the intro to Head of the State, which is an excerpt from The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings, a 1976 movie starring Richard Pryor, James Earl Jones, and Billy Dee Williams. The movie’s about a black player-owned baseball team on the road, playing local teams for money, and white Negro League owners plotting to thwart them...
“What do we never run out of in this country?” part of the excerpt says, and then punchlines with: “White folks.”

Despite certain critique, Rasco holds fast to his premise: “The underground game right now has become more of a white emcee’s game. And so, you got cats who don’t even know Peanut Butter Wolf, or they don’t know Rasco, or they don’t know anybody. They just come out and that’s how it goes. That’s what’s running the game right now. To me, emcees that rock like we do–or black emcees in the underground–it’s a minority now.

“Not saying that white emcees shouldn’t be in there. I don’t care what color you are, if you got skills it don’t matter. My point is that you got cats that are comin’ out–that are not talented–that are getting a lot of hype. I know dudes in Oakland, San Francisco, and New York that will rap circles around these dudes, and these cats don’t have records out...[Touring] in 2001, unless you got either a white act on the bill, or you bring in a white crowd, they won’t book you.

“It was the flipside before,” he continues. “Because when I was on Stones Throw, Peanut Butter Wolf wouldn’t even show his face. People wanted to do interviews or take pictures of me and him, and he didn’t want to do it. And there was a reason he didn’t want to do it because everybody that met him in 1998 through 2000 gave him the same response, [a surprised] ‘Damn, you Peanut Butter Wolf?’...Then, I opened a magazine three or four years later and he’s on a full-page ad. Whether good or bad, I just noticed that it changed, so I just spoke on it.”

Not coincidentally, a certain bottle-blonde emcee from the Motor City began showing his face in ’99 to much fanfare–and protest. Like this Oscar-winning Shady Records owner, Soulfather is also a paternal figure to his five-year-old daughter.
“I got over the initial jolt of having a kid, and that person being dependent on you and stuff like that, so now it’s just like second nature,” says Rasco. “That’s just another responsibility that I have–it’s a big giant one, it’s the biggest one I got. But I just look at it that way and try to enjoy her.”

Responsibility keeps families and businesses buoyant, and produces independent success regardless of how the record industry sells it. “Honestly man, I just look at each goal that I set, and it’s not necessarily numbers goals,” explains Rasco. “It’s just, I wanted to see my first album come out and it did, and so to me that was a success... Everything that I kinda wanted to do—and do it the way I want to do it has been for me a successful venture that I set out on... At the end of the day, if you’re making a living from it and you’re able to do it the way you want, then to me it’s successful.”

Tajai on the Spot

2004-07-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

Tajai
Illustration by Andrew Strawder .

THE HIEROGLYPHICS CREW SHOWWED THAT UNDERGROUND HIP-HOP ARTISTS COULD BE MORE THAN JUST "COOL"; THEY COULD ALSO BE SUCCESSFUL.
by Jesse Ducker

Before Hieroglyphics, hip-hop artists dropped from one major label and immediately bounced to another, occasionally finding success, but mostly fading into obscurity. When the members of the Bay Area-based Hiero crew lost their deals, they decided to take a different path.

In the early 1990s, Hieroglyphics—composed of the Souls of Mischief (A-Plus, Tajai, Phesto, and Opio), Del the Funkee Homosapien, Casual, and Pep Love—either had major label deals or were hustling to get one. Most enjoyed some level of success, all enjoyed critical acclaim; Souls of Mischief, for example, has sold over 400,000 copies of their debut album ’93 Til Infinity.

Then, Souls and Casual were dropped from Jive Records and Del from Elektra, and rather than rebounding to another major label like Def Jam, Hiero decided to regroup. They continued recording music on their own, touring nationwide, and communicating with their core audience through their website. They eventually formed their own label, Hieroglyphics Imperium, and put out new material without any major label support.

Hiero’s efforts have impacted underground hip-hop throughout the nation. Artists behind other indie labels might not have taken their chances on the independent route if Hiero hadn’t shown they could make it happen.

The Hieroglyphics crew has maintained its artistic integrity without having to compromise in order to pay the rent or feed the kids. Though Souls of Mischief’s releases off Hiero Imperium have sold maybe a quarter of the units as ’93 Til Infinity, they’ve enjoyed far more financial success independently than Jive Records ever provided. Tajai, who runs the label along with long-time Souls’ manager Domino, says he’s already made more money in 2004 than he ever made through two albums on Jive.
Hiero continues to distribute that success back to the Bay Area community. After years of releasing albums from inside the immediate Hiero camp, in the last 18 months Hieroglyphics Imperium has dropped four albums from Bay Area-based artists, including the Delinquents, soul songstress Goapele, San Francisco-based MC Z-Man, and Milpitas-based MC Encore. But according to Tajai, it’s only the beginning...

SHOUT!: So how was the Bay Area scene changed since Hiero first came out?
TAJAI: Well, for one, it exists. Before us, there was Too Short’s Dangerous Crew, Coughnut, and some other artists, but mostly gangsta rappers. Now people expect groups on some real hip-hop shit to come out of here every year.

So how much do you think Hieroglyphics is responsible for that?
I think we’ve a got a lot to do with it. We’ve brought out a lot of new styles over the years that other local groups weren’t doing before us.
It’s been almost 10 years since Souls of Mischief or Del has put out a major label release, but the Hieroglyphics crew still commands a very loyal following. Hiero has captured a lot of fan’s imaginations.

Why do you think that is?
We’re coming from a real perspective. It’s kind of hard to explain. Take Eminem for example. On some level he’s really popular because of his skin color, and a lot of fans relate to what he’s saying because he looks like them. But it’s also in the way he rhymes, which isn’t complicated. It’s straightforward. It’s hip-hop as conversation. And I think we rhyme a lot like that. We don’t use a lot of slang. We’re not trying to hide behind hella vocabulary. It’s real. I mean, a lot of what Del says, you can take it and write it down as sentences. In fact, I don’t think we use as much poetical language as we want. Our stuff isn’t as cryptic as we’d like it to be sometimes.

How has your music evolved?
The music has gotten a lot richer. It’s more organic. We’ve got more knowledge of everything, and better knowledge makes for better music.

So what do you see for the future of the Bay Area scene?
It will become a viable industry. People should be able to go and see live music every night, in a diverse number of scenes, not just the hip-hop scene. There are not many venues out there. There’s the Fillmore, but that’s owned by Clear Channel. We got to get our people out there and going to shows.
We have to have spaces to perform in the Bay, ...because there aren’t many. Which is a trip, because the San Francisco Bay Area is one of the biggest cultural centers in the country. I mean, I’m from Oakland, but I’ve only rapped in Oakland like three times.

So why do you think that there aren’t any shows in Oakland?
Because there’s always this perception that people in the ’Town are always wylin’ out. But promoters need to step it up. As far as planning, there needs to be spots were both mainstream and underground groups can perform. You have to have both, but right now we don’t have any. When acts from out of town come here, they do their show and visit KMEL and that’s it. There’s no where else for them to go.
People in the Bay have got to get creative. Promoters have got to create 18 and under spots for kids to go to. They’ve got to bridge the gap. And they’ve got to get hip-hop cats in there. They’ve gotta respect hip-hop as music.

Why do you think they don’t?
There’s this oppressive police state mentality. People are like, ‘There’s these kids with their skateboards and their hip-hop music and they’re causing a nuisance.’ So venues won’t book hip-hop regularly. I mean, why is there no phat spot near the UC Berkeley campus? There’s like 30,000 students right there, and there’s no really hype spot to see live music. There’s a bunch of problems. For example, cats are scared to take a loss on setting up these shows. There’s also a generation gap between the promoters and the performers.
But I guess the fact [that] there’s never been a really live place to catch live music is why we even have a “scene” in the Bay. People are at home recording music because there isn’t anything to do. I mean, for me and the rest of Hieroglyphics, that’s how we got started. We started making music because we didn’t have shit else to do.

You started the Hieroglyphics Imperium record label a few years ago. But it’s only recently that you have used the label to put out artists outside of the Hiero family. What made you guys decide to start putting out other artists?
We realized that if we wanted to be a franchise, we had to be making opportunities for people other than ourselves to shine. If you start a business, you shouldn’t be greedy. We don’t waste all the time and money just on ourselves. That’s selfish.
All of the groups on the label have followings. Z-Man has a solid cult following, Encore has a core following. Same with Goapele. We’ve brought in bands that are trying to create something. They already know how to be artists. They’re not going to have to get their show down and get their chops up. They already know what they’re doing.

SHOUT!: So what’s next for Hiero and yourself?
TAJAI: Well, I’ve started my own label, Clear Label, which is distributed through Hieroglyphics Imperium. I’m gonna put out Shake Da Mayor through the label. I’ve got my album, Power Movement. Casual’s gonna drop a new album called Casual Presents: Smash Rockwell. A-Plus will release a new solo album. Opio has got a new album called Triangulation Station, Pep Love has got Reconstruction, and Del has got 11th Hour. Just check it out.

The Shout Mission

2004-06-08T11:13:00.000-07:00

A movement has been taking shape here in the Bay Area and beyond. Hip-hop is its vehicle, driven by countless independent artists, musicians and visionaries. Their efforts are building a community that is a part of a growing international culture.

SHOUT Magazine is on a mission to promote hip-hop culture in the Bay Area. The Bay Area makes its own unique contributions to this culture through elements of deejaying, emceeing, graff writing, breakdancing, slang, etc. SHOUT's content promotes awareness of these contributions and fosters a connection between the elements of hip-hop and our readers.

Not just a "music magazine," SHOUT follows the shared experiences within hip-hop culture as they inspire other outwardly-significant activities. We feature activist groups and enterprises motivated by the values of the hip-hop culture. We spread the message worldwide through pictures, words and innovative designs to bring this diverse world to our readers.

Distribution

2004-03-09T11:54:00.000-08:00

VITAL STATS:

AUDIENCE BREAKDOWN
Size: 100,000
Age Range: 18-35
Median Age: 25
Male/Female Ratio: 1/1

DISTRIBUTION BREAKDOWN:
Total Locations: 300
—SF/Peninsula: 150
—East&North Bay: 100
—South Bay: 50

ALAMEDA
Axis Records
Wherehouse Records

BERKELEY
Amoeba
Au Coquelet Café
La Peña
Port Light Bar
Rasputin
Thalassa Pool Hall
UC Berkeley, Main Cafeteria

CONCORD
Tower Records

DUBLIN
Tower Records

EMERYVILLE
Tower Records

FREMONT
Bay Street Coffee Company
Straight Hits Vinyl Shop

HAYWARD
Odyssey Head Shop

MOUNTAIN VIEW
Tower Records

NEWARK
Rasputin Records

OAKLAND
Ben ‘n’ Nick’s Pub
Café D
CCAC, Student Life Ctr.
Diesel Books
Earwitness Music
Funky Soul Stop
Gaylord’s
Global Entertainment
Leo’s Pro Audio
Mama Buzz
Mama’s Café
Oaklandish
Piedmont Theater
The Record Gallery
Saturn Records
Stork Club
The Hut
The Oasis
Zodiac Records

SAN FRANCISCO
3159 16th St. Café
500 Club
Amoeba
Artist Television Access
Bean There
Beauty Bar
Blue Front Café
Blue Jay Restaurant
BPM Records
Brain Drops
Brain Wash
Café Commons
Cafe DuNord
Café Flores
Café International
Café Mono
Casa Nova
City Blend Café
City Lights Bookstore
Clothes Contact
Comix Experience
Community Music Center
Creative Music Records
Cybelles’s Pizza, Haight
Delirium
EL Farlito, 24th St.
Elbo Room
Golden Triangle
Grooves Records
Hotel Utah
Hush Hush
Idle Hand Tattoo
In House Records
KUSF
Leather Tongue
Lucky 13
Milk
Mom’s Tattoo’s
Muddy Waters Cafes
New College
People’s Café
Punch Gallery
Rainbow Grocery
Rare Records
Rasputin Records
Red Devil Lounge
SF Int. Student Center
SF State Student Union
Slims
Smokes Etc.
Sparky’s
Spundae Records
Streetlight Records
Studio Z
The Marsh
Toronado
Tower Records
True
Upper Playground
Wherehouse Records

PLEASANT HILL
Rasputin Records

REDWOOD CITY
Wherehouse Records

SAN LORENZO
Rasutin Records

SAN MATEO
Tower Records
Vinyl Solution

SAN RAFAEL
Wherehouse Records

VALLEJO
Rasputin Records

sample

2003-11-04T09:03:00.000-08:00

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We're Sorry...

2003-01-19T18:32:00.002-08:00

The SHOUT Media Kit is closed for rennovations. It will reopen again February 5. For all marketing inquiries, please call us at (415)309-6788, or email our Publisher's desk: publisher@shoutbayarea.com. Thanks for checking us out!